When Will He Learn About The Law Of Unintended Consequences?
For
decades Russian ammunition has been imported into the United
States. It has largely met the demand for very low priced ammo
for causal target practice. As one might expect, Russia
began with their own calibers, which were in use in Russian designed
guns here in the US, such as the Mosin bolt action rifle and the AK-47
semi-auto. However, they soon began cranking out U.S. calibers
such as 5.56 NATO (the most common AR15 caliber) and 9mm Lugar (the
most common US handgun caliber). At this point Russia supplies 4%
of the ammo sold in the US.
Recently, the Biden administration rightly decided that Russia should be sanctioned, due to the attempted assassination of Aleksey Navalny, and his imprisonment on trumped up charges. Of course, with the Biden administration’s attitude towards guns – especially AR15s and AK47s – banning the import of Russian guns and ammo was a natural first choice. It should be noted that approved import permits will be honored, but once that ammo is imported, there will be no more imports from Russia.
While I could argue that this is going to be hard on American gun owners, that is not my point in writing this. My point is simple: What does Pres. Biden think will happen to all of that existing ammo production capacity?
There is one obvious place that the Russians can sell there ammo: Afghanistan. The Taliban are a perfect fit for the currently existing ammo production capacity in Russia that will be freed up when exports to the U.S. dry up. The Taliban have tons of AK47s and AK74s, along with Russian machine guns. They also now have many M4s and M16s captured from the Afghan National Army. They likely have many 9mm handguns too. Of course they captured a lot of ammo, but that won’t last forever – especially if they have to fight an insurgency, which appears likely.
So, in a year or two, they will need to start buying the very same calibers Russia has been exporting to America (7.62x54r, 7.62x39, 5.45x39, 5.56 NATO, 9mm). Pres. Biden has made sure that the Taliban will be able to resupply at fire sale prices. Something tells me that this is not a good thing…..
Recently, the Biden administration rightly decided that Russia should be sanctioned, due to the attempted assassination of Aleksey Navalny, and his imprisonment on trumped up charges. Of course, with the Biden administration’s attitude towards guns – especially AR15s and AK47s – banning the import of Russian guns and ammo was a natural first choice. It should be noted that approved import permits will be honored, but once that ammo is imported, there will be no more imports from Russia.
While I could argue that this is going to be hard on American gun owners, that is not my point in writing this. My point is simple: What does Pres. Biden think will happen to all of that existing ammo production capacity?There is one obvious place that the Russians can sell there ammo: Afghanistan. The Taliban are a perfect fit for the currently existing ammo production capacity in Russia that will be freed up when exports to the U.S. dry up. The Taliban have tons of AK47s and AK74s, along with Russian machine guns. They also now have many M4s and M16s captured from the Afghan National Army. They likely have many 9mm handguns too. Of course they captured a lot of ammo, but that won’t last forever – especially if they have to fight an insurgency, which appears likely.
So, in a year or two, they will need to start buying the very same calibers Russia has been exporting to America (7.62x54r, 7.62x39, 5.45x39, 5.56 NATO, 9mm). Pres. Biden has made sure that the Taliban will be able to resupply at fire sale prices. Something tells me that this is not a good thing…..
