>
>Writing to you somewhat mollified...Senator Warner's office (R-VA)
responded to me on Saturday, with a letter stating that he had contacted the
BATF, inquiring as to why the ban was in place, and stating that he (read
his staff) would let me know what happens.
>
>Hopefully, he won't come back with the same crap reply given by the other
Senator mentioned earlier, stating "Sorry, nothing can be done"...then, I'll
just have to write another letter, to remind him of his legislative powers...
>
>EO's do not in fact derive from the War Powers Act, which was passed in the
wake of Vietnam. Rather, EO's derive from the State of National Emergency
first declared by FDR in the late '40s, under statutory authority granted to
him by Congress around that time. Sorry, can't remember the name of that law.
>
>According to a lawyer with whom I correspond, the State Department is
charged under the Export Control Act to maintain a list of vehicles &
components which are prohibited entry into the country. He feels that the
bureaucrats probably realized that this class of item was not controlled,
and put them on the list as well. I'm not sure that the answer is quite so
simple as this. Others who have communicated with BATF claim that BATF has
stated that State won't budge on this at all, despite BATF's lobbying for
relaxation of restrictions. Several BATF folks have claimed that the
decision on this goes perhaps as high as the SecState.
>
>Given that most folks in this country (including BATF) feel that
importation of these items is a fairly innocuous activity (although some
like Skwizzy might feel it to be amusingly eccentric) and that the rules
were made by State bureaucrats, it would seem to be an easy, and harmless
thing for those same bureaucrats to now loosen control over these items.
>
>This begs the question: WHY HAVEN'T THEY?
>
>Perhaps Sen. Warner can get some answers.
===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.