ITAR & You

Recently, the State Department announced that they intended to make some changes to ITAR regulations as part of the President’s Export Control Reform efforts. You may have heard the Internet chatter about this measure and the proposed implications of it silencing the media when it comes to posting technical information about the manufacture of weapons (firearms and ammunition.) That being said, there’s more to it when you dig a little deeper, which is exactly what I’ll be doing in this article.

Matthew breaks it down and highlights the horrible ramifications were this proposed change to occur:

For an individual, Internet violations can be life changing to say the least. Violations carry a potential punishment of up to twenty years and fine of up to $1 million dollars, per infraction.

This means that if you’re caught exporting 20 third-generation night vision optic devices, you could face a sentence of 400 years, depending on prosecutorial inclination towards you. Similarly, if you post a YouTube video of how to break down and reassemble your Glock and that video is then viewed 20 times overseas, you, your ISP and YouTube will all face huge legal liability when the Department of State comes to call. A single post may be read hundreds or thousands of times and each view may be a separate offense.

The way I read it, pretty much any gun site and local gun club would have to shut down as a result.

Read the rest of the article: http://www.itstactical.com/centcom/news/itar-changes-keeping-up-with-the-times-or-backdoor-gun-control/

1 Comment

  1. Joe Anderson on July 18, 2015 at 3:01 pm

    Hi Aaron:
    Interesting post.
    My firm, Tactical Export Strategies, LLC, specializes in handling ITAR and other compliance and logistics for the export of defense articles and services.
    While some of the items above are true, the requirements under ITAR center around technical data and technical training.
    For example, I spoke to a company that trains on the defusing of bombs. Or anoter one would be the product specks on a new type of ammo. These would fall under you scenario. The requirement is not that you control all outbound emails from others, just that you disclose in your communications (language is specified by the law) that these items are not to be sent to foreigners unless there is prior approval from the US State Department.
    I think it would be a pretty big leap, at this point, to say the above post on how to break down a Glock would put you in jail.
    However, you do point out (and I thank you for it) that there are very serious regulations regarding not only the export of tangible items, but also technical data.
    It makes sense to either invest in the extensive eduction in the ITAR law to understand this risk or hire a firm that does.
    Thanks for your concern to warn others of this risk.
    Joe