Last week I linked to a story about how the sales of hundreds of thousands of M1 Garands and M1 Carbines in South Korea were being blocked by the US government. Like a lot of others, I suspected the reason was that it was just an easy way for the Obama administration to limit gun sales.

Now more info is out, and it looks like the real reason is that the guns were given to the Koreans as part of a Lend-Lease program, and therefore cannot be sold by them. (via Say Uncle)

If they are no longer needed, they should be returned. At which point they could be sold as surplus by the Civilian Marksmanship Program. That’s Murdoc’s vote. He’s not holding his breath, though.

We’ll probably pay the Koreans to destroy them.

Here’s a guy with a Romanian-built PSL:

Here’s a guy with a PKM 7.62x54mm machine gun:

And here’s a couple guys with M16s:

The guy on the left appears to be ammo carrier for the machine gunner. The Hooah Nutrition Bar sticker appears to be covering up something on the stock. Or maybe he’s just really into in well-balanced, all-natural energy bars.

None of the photos at DVIDS appear to have anyone with an AK or other 7.62×39 weapon, which would make sense from a logistics standpoint. 7.62×54 for the snipers and machine gunners, and either 7.62×39 or 5.56 for the riflemen. One of the photos shows a guys with an RPG.

Murdoc would like to pick up a 7.62x54mm. Though he’d like a Dragunov, economic reality will probably make it a Mosin–Nagant rifle.

Why is Obama administration blocking import of surplus rifles?

“The U.S. government opposed South Korea’s bid to sell hundreds of thousands of aging U.S. combat rifles to American gun collectors,” Jung Sung-ki of The Korea Times reports.

“The ministry announced the plan last September as part of efforts to boost its defense budget, saying the export of the M1 Garand and carbine rifles would start by the end of 2009.”

So why didn’t they?

Codrea knows they’re anti-gun. I know they’re anti-gun. You know they’re anti-gun.

This was probably just a low-hanging apple.

I neglected to point out this story over at Shooting Illustrated: Guns of the Enemy in Afghanistan

The whole ‘Khyber Pass Copy’ scenario has intrigued Murdoc for some time.

Plus, while digging for photos to accompany the story, I came across a cache with some PPSh-41s. One of them was a cut-down model with no shoulder stock.

Which is funny because it has no shoulder thing that goes up but it DOES have a barrel shroud.

Gold and silver-plated jewel-encrusted guns allegedly owned by drug cartel boss are seized in Mexico

More pics at the Telegraph.

Snowflakes in Hell notices some wackiness in New Zealand:

Police Minister Judith Collins announced this month that the Government planned to change the Arms Order to require anyone who bought or owned a pre-charged pneumatic PCP air rifle to hold a firearms licence.

BBC News

Gail Cochrane, 53, had kept the gun for 29 years following the death of her father, who had been in the Royal Navy.

Police found the weapon, a Browning self-loading pistol, during a search of her home in Dundee while looking for her son.

She admitted illegal possession of the firearm, an offence with a minimum five-year jail term under Scots law.

Cochrane told the High Court in Edinburgh that she had never contemplated she might be committing a crime by keeping the gun or that she might need to get a licence for the weapon.

She said: “I thought it was just a war trophy.”

It actually sounds like it’s a Czech-made pistol chambered for 7.65mm Browning ammunition, not a Browning pistol.

The judge in the case said”I am not satisfied that a reasonable explanation has been put forward for not handing this gun into the authorities throughout the 29-year period she says she has had it in her possession.”

and I guess that, considering the law, that it was the legal thing to do.

Which is why no such law must ever ever ever be allowed in this country.

Police were searching for her son who had missed a court date. They found the gun underneath a mattress. Did they think the guy was underneath the mattress?

Oh, well. She’ll be out when she’s 58.

Sad.

Snowflakes in Hell has

An example of the ways Mexican criminals sell guns to other criminals

More: In Depth Look at Trafficking in Mexico.

More on Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s false claims to Congress:

Among Calderon’s other assertions, he said: “And if you look carefully you will notice that the violence in Mexico started to grow a couple of years before I took office in 2006. This coincides, at least, with the lifting of the assault weapons ban in 2004.”

He also warned that America faces the same danger.

There is only one problem: American and Mexican murder rates fell between the ban and the latest official data in 2008.

The article’s author, John Lott, notes that 2009 data may show an increase. But that is not what Calderon said and that is not what he was getting at.

It’s almost like he’s saying whatever he can to score political points.

Mexican President Calderone Lied to Congress

You keep saying it long enough, enough people will start to think it’s true:

Calderon said the increase in violence in Mexico had coincided with the 2004 lifting of a U.S. assault weapons ban.

He said again that 80% of the guns that hae been seized by Mexican officials from criminals originated in the US.

One problem:

Calderone’s claim that more than 80% of guns came from the U.S is a bald-faced lie.

The actual figure is less than 18%, and the number of guns purchased from dealers that made their way to Mexico was only eight percent; the majority of guns traced to the United States were stolen.

The bulk of firearms in the hands of the cartels are military weapons purchased on the black market, with a sizable percentage purchased or stolen from the Mexican government itself.

Since the Pres and his crew have finally got it into their heads that Americans don’t want a new AWB, they’re left trying to pass one off as assistance to Mexico.

Mexico is a huge problem and it’s going to get worse. I still want to see the number of seized guns that were legally sold/given to the Mexican government at some point. Because it’s obvious once they run the numbers.