What Pres. Obama Neglected to Mention Before Banning Re-Imports of M1 Garand Rifles

By Max McGuire

M1 Garand Rifles
M1 Garand Rifles
SanityPolitics
SanityPolitics

New Jersey –-(Ammoland.com)-  On August 29, 2013, the Obama administration announced that the government would no longer authorize the re-importation of made US weapons.

Following WWII and the Korean War, the United States sold and gifted decommissioned rifles to its allies around the world fighting the spread of Communism.

The majority of these rifles were M1 Garands.

While these rifles remain legal to buy and sell domestically, countries like South Korea are no longer able to resell these rifles to American collectors. Even though these historic firearms are seldom, if ever, implicated in crimes, this new executive order promises a decrease in gun violence. Gun control groups such as Moms Demand Action applauded the measure as a common sense way to reduce gun violence that plagues our inner cities. Second Amendment groups, like the NRA, criticized the administration for “completely [missing] the mark when it comes to stopping violent crime” and putting the last nail in the coffin for the 110 year old Civilian Marksmanship Program.

Since the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, President Obama has sought to do everything within his power to limit civilian ownership of firearms. With the Senate unable to break the filibuster and the House of Representatives unlikely to bring gun control legislation out of committee, President Obama has been forced to turn to executive orders. While presidential power is limited without congressional approval, executive oversight over the ATF allows the President some flexibility in changing government policy.

Restricting the re-importation of US WWII rifles fits within this authority.

Many of these antique rifles now prohibited from re-entering the country possess the same semi-automatic actions that gun control advocates have sought to limit through a new Assault Weapons Ban. For this reason, the President believes that their age and collectability is a non-issue. As long as they remain functional, they are perceived as a threat. With mass shootings still fresh in our memories, President Obama hopes that limiting the number of semi-automatic rifles available to the public will reduce the likelihood of another tragic school shooting.

I know what you’re thinking: Curio and Relic (C&R) firearms are rarely, if ever, implicated in crimes and certainly haven’t been used in a school shooting. While it is safe to say that it is unlikely to find a mass shooter with C&R firearm, Obama is right to worry about the M1 Garand specifically. This historic rifle was used in one of the most infamous, high-profile school shootings in the 20th century. However that is no reason to limit the civilian ownership of this weapon.

Ohio Army National Guard arrived at Kent State University
Ohio Army National Guard arrived at Kent State University

On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio Army National Guard arrived at Kent State University to respond to a growing anti-war protest movement on campus. For the last four days, college students had protested the Nixon Administration’s new Cambodian campaign on the university quad. As the protest grew, so did its media exposure. On the fourth day of the protests, the National Guard soldiers — equipped with M1 Garands — fixed their bayonets and drove the student protesters off of the university quad.

At 12:24PM — for reasons still being debated to this day — Sgt. Myron Pryor turned his 1911 service pistol on the students and began firing. The other National Guard soldiers followed suit. The result was a volley of approximately 67 shots into the crowd of unarmed student protesters. When the dust settled, four students were dead and another nine were wounded.

While President Nixon’s investigative commission held both the students and the Guardsmen responsible, it concluded that the “the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable.”

When gun control advocates talk about the United States’ history of mass shootings, they seldom include the Kent State Massacre. While they oppose the civilian ownership of “military style” weapons, they are more than willing to support the militarization of domestic police forces. But I must warn against allowing gun control advocates to frame the argument in a way to include antique rifles in the “military style” category. How far back can this logic be stretched? The common response is that a “military style” firearm is any weapon that was deliberately designed to kill people. Under that assumption, nearly every weapon stretching back to when the Chinese discovered gun powder could be labeled a prohibited weapon.

The very muskets that won this country’s revolutionary war could get caught in the gun control dragnet.

The M1 Garands and Carbines now prohibited for re-importation are functional firearms that, if placed into capable hands, are certainly capable of inflicting damage. The M1 Garand’s use in the Kent State Massacre proves that. However it is illogical to take a school shooting, perpetrated by elements of our armed forces, and use it as a rationale to prevent the civilian ownership of these weapons. If anything, the Kent State Massacre legitimizes the civilian ownership of comparable military style firearms. The idea that a National Guard unit could open fire and mow down unarmed protesters is beyond disturbing.

According to Gen. George S. Patton, the M1 Garand was the “the greatest battle implement ever devised.” It helped win the Second World War and remained in active service through the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In peacetime, the M1 Garand provided countries like West Germany, Italy, Japan, Greece, Turkey, and South Korea with a means of defending against the spread of Communism and Marxism on the European and Asian continents. At home, the M1 Garand served as the backbone of the Civilian Marksmanship Program and taught countless Americans the skills required for membership in our nation’s unorganized militia.

Yet today, we are told that reintroducing these service rifles into the market would lead to an increase in crime and gun violence. Gun control advocates neglect to mention examples of when this storied rifle contributed to a crime.

If they did the research however, they would learn that the most deadly domestic shooting involving an M1 Garand was committed not by a deranged citizen, but by elements of our own National Guard. Let that sink in a bit…

About SanityPolitic’ Max Mcguire;
Max McGuire is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Political Science at Villanova University. He graduated from Boston College, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Arabic Studies. Follow him on Twitter@SanityPolitics

32 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
AIrdale

Of all the rifles to ban. The Garand is an 8 shot semi automatic rifle. While not linked to any specific violent crime other than Kent State, the rifles is 99 % used by rifle clubs and private owners as a piece of history. If the intend in some state is to reduce the round count that such firearms can be loaded with, this perhaps one of the ones that should be allowed. Even the BATF does not agree with the Obama administration executive order in their White paper report. While waiting for common sense to arrive back in DC,… Read more »

sagebrush6

The Liberal Mind With Nancy Pelosi repeatedly telling audiences about hearing voices of deceased women, and Barack Obama regarded by many as dangerously narcissistic, here comes a veteran psychiatrist making the case that the mental-emotional world of leftists is actually tantamount to a mental disorder. For more than 40 years, Rossiter has diagnosed and treated over 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases, both state and federal, as a forensic psychiatrist retained by numerous public offices, courts and private attorneys. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of… Read more »

Nanjing03

Now that the progressive wing in the Democratic Party has been shattered and America is about to usher in the first populous president since Andrew Jackson, it will be interesting to know when those hundreds of thousands of M1 Garands and M1 carbines will be released to the American public. No doubt, enormous stocks of .30 ball ammunition, spare parts and accessories will be available too.

Doug I

Gee this is getting good. the Koreans cannot resell M-1 to Americans. but Obama can sell millions of guns to communist Vietnam. m-16s m-4s stingers LAWWs night vision glasses radar equipt. tanks armor what a great gesture to the American serviceman and the American people. gee why not sell guns to dope dealers in New York to protect our inner city. and help the police stop crime………………………..

exlibloon

the M1 is wonderful. with no rounds but a bayonet attached, you can bludgeon multiple people with out harming it.
I grew up after WW2. All the neighbors were vets. All the neighbors were NRA members. All taught their children to shoot and handle firearms properly. Every house had at least one military firearm purchased through the Civilian Marksmanship Program. We had zero gun accidents, zero shootings, ans zero crime.
The big Ogayarab and liberals need to be removed from power for sedition ans treason

FRANK FETTIG

I want an M1 Garand, not to massacre people but for historical significance. It is our history. God bless the day NOBAMA is just a bad memory.

CitizenOfaFreeRepublic

You and me both! I have an M1 Carbine.. need the Garand to go with it!

Matt

Oh man thats why im getting a Mosin Nagant. Under 200 bucks and historically significant

Norm

“ridiculous”

Norm

Oops! Wrong spot for a reply. I’d meant to say here that M1 rifles (the Garand) are still available from the CMP. http://www.thecmp.org These are available to any American citizen that can pass a NICS check. They cost a bit more now than when I got one in 1986.

hejohnson43

How many people have to die, before they can call it a massacre? If I am not mistaken, some of the demonstrators were armed with pistols. The demonstrators where throwing rocks, bottles, rail road spikes and etc, which are deadly weapons. A Professor there said that if the students had known that the soldiers had loaded weapons, they would not have pushed them as far as they did. I only heard that statement once.

Mike11C

I learned something new today. I was under the impression that the M-14 was the weapon used at Kent State. I remember seeing a picture of a “little hippy chick” putting a flower in the barrel of a Soldier’s M-14. I think it was on the cover of Life Magazine. I was getting ready to have my tenth birthday when this incident happened but, I was interested in the Vietnam war because my brother was over there. I knew that we had just changed over to the M-16 and thought that the Guard/Reserve had gotten the “hand me down” M-14.… Read more »

Buck Crosby

Why is this misfit fruitcake SOB still in office ? We desperately need to get rid of the SOB and also all the junk he passed , including his so called executive orders , and see that the congress has some input or control over executive orders from future presidents .

magnum

Becker is right the best liar wins. And that is Obama.A BIG ONE.

Becker

Just remember this rule. If Obama’s lips are moving, he’s lying.

Getoffmylawn

Who would have thought the “nut job conspiracy theorists” were right all along?!

This is an Orwellian nightmare we’re living in…

John Detwiler

As I read these rediculous Obama’s stupid and pathetic EP and the also stupid and parhetic responcesby the also stupid persons responce to them I feel sympathy for the ignorance of those people. But the most telling thing of all is the man who, in spite of all the facts, that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. And there is tons of facts that gun control causes more crime and death, than a gun free society does. Look at Great Britain, Canadaz and Austrailia for an example.

Norm

“ridiculous”

Max McGuire

Marc de Piolenc: Photo evidence proves, clear as day, that the Guardsmen were armed primarily with M1 Garands. There might have been a few Carbines thrown in there, but the vast majority were Garands.

John Hand: I am for the importation of these rifles. Any weapon is deadly if it’s the intent of the owner. But that’s still no reason to ban them, especially given the most notable mass shooting was committed by government forces. Sorry if my views didn’t come across clearly…

Bill Bennett

Obama sucks doggie d***

Doug Rodrigues

My issued weapon many decades ago was an M-1 Carbine. The soldiers in the photo are holding the M-1 Garand. When the M-16 appeared, I thought it was a joke.

John Hand

I’m a little confused. Is the author FOR or AGAINST the importation of M1 Garands? Darned if I can tell from the article.

Marc de Piolenc

My understanding is that the Guardsmen were equipped with M1 carbines, not M1 Garand rifles. The similar designation has caused a lot of confusion over the years. The carbine – originally designed as a replacement for officers’ sidearms, fired a different cartridge from the .30-06 fired by the Garand. The carbine cartridge is much weaker and is essentially a pistol cartridge on steroids – in fact, some pistols have been chanbered for it.

Uncle Duke

The Ohio National Guard was issued M-1 Garands, not M-1 carbines. One of the rifles that was fired at Kent State is now on display at the Smithsonian. With regard to students with pistols, this is an urban legend that has been perpetuated for the last 44 years. There is no evidence to support this. There are numerous audio recordings and films that refute this. The National Guard was ill equipped to deal with civil unrest on the college campus. They had just come off an extended deployment to deal with a trucker’s strike and a strike by the URW.… Read more »

HappyClinger

Executive oversight of the ATF does NOT give anyone authority to override the Constitution, which is law. Policy is not law and cannot be enforced, except with thug tactics and brute force. We think we have to obey “policy” and this is just bs. We don’t. Obama can’t write law and make something illegal just because he says so. Every citizen of this country owes allegiance and obedience only to God and the Constitution. Stand up. Refuse to be a slave to the whim of an overreaching public SERVANT.

John

Now we are down to 8-shot, clip fed semi-automatic rifles. What is next, the muzzle loader flintlock types?

Clay A Rogers

I so hope that the next Republican President shows up on his/her first day in office with one Executive Order already typed out, to wit; As my first EO, I hereby rescind all EO’s issued by B.H. Obama effective immediately.

VT Patriot

First they ‘decide’ the AR and AK type rifles are unlawful. (You know how scary they look) Next is all semi’s, next all those with a “clip”, then tubular mags, then handguns with a mag, then revolvers, and so on. We all know how often M1s are used in street crime, mass shootings, concealed carry etc. They must be banned (added to the list of assault rifles). Soon, it will be flintlocks, and we all know how dangerous they are. After all, they won our independence from an overbearing gov, and we certainly don’t want that to happen again.

Ranchman

Let’s all start speaking the truth: Barack Hussein Obama is not an American citizen; he was raised by Marxists and Black Liberation Theologists; he’s at the very least a muslim apologist, if not a muslim himself; he has promoted several members of the muslim brotherhood and its front group CAIR to sensitive posts in several intelligence/defense agencies, including the DHS; he has committed fraud and forgery to illegally ascend to the highest office in the land; he’s hellbent on destroying the nation and shredding the Constitution; he purposely caused the deaths of four American in Benghazi; he was highly involved… Read more »

Boz

Pathetic-In-Chief. Why do we have an ignorant little boy trying to do a man’s job?!?!?! Political correctness, that’s why!

Tom

Yes, I see thugs in the streets all the time carrying M1 Garand Rifles. I hear they make great conceal carry weapons. LOL! Outlawing Guns, one weapon at a time. That’s the communist, Gestapo way.. When we no longer have enough firepower left to resist, then they will take ALL weapons..

jim

“Slow boiling a frog”….