JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Today, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that he directed a letter to Biden’s Department of Commerce, demanding the agency rescind their unconstitutional proposed rule attempting to limit Americans’ ability to export firearms.
“The right to keep and bear arms is inalienable, and it is my sacred duty to protect it whenever, wherever, and however it be imperiled,” said Attorney General Bailey. “My office will always fight to safeguard Missourians’ Second Amendment rights against encroachment by unelected federal bureaucrats.”
The Biden Administration’s Interim Final Rule on Firearms limits American firearm exportation, gives semi-automatic guns new classifications, makes it harder to get exceptions for exporting these items to many international locations, and makes paperwork more complicated. Additionally, the rule threatens manufacturers by restricting their legal ability to sell firearms internationally, which would result in lost sales, reduced earnings, job losses, decreased investments in new technology, and weakening of the American firearms industry.
Additionally, because of elitist federal bureaucrats, the rule has a profoundly flawed foundation, implying that government entities are more deserving of firearms than civilians, and that government users are inherently safer and less likely to misuse firearms overseas. In his letter, Attorney General Bailey notes past instances when government-held firearms fell into the hands of bad actors, including in 2014 when millions of dollars’ worth of firearms were abandoned by the U.S. and seized by ISIS, and more recently when the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawl from Afghanistan allowed large stockpiles of weapons to fall into the hands of the Taliban.
In the letter, Attorney General Bailey asserts that the Biden Administration “has entirely failed to consider the economic impact of this rule in addition to the fact that many claims that BIS makes about increased national security are dubious. This rule will in effect inhibit the full enjoyment and exercise of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.”
The firearms industry is a vital part of not only the U.S. economy but specifically Missouri’s economy, creating thousands of jobs and generating billions of dollars nationwide. Biden’s proposed rule oversteps legal authority and will weaken the firearms manufacturing industry.
Attorney General Bailey is requesting it be withdrawn immediately.
The full letter can be read here.