I believe that I need to see much more before I am going to get excited. I am very familiar with ITAR and has a number of dealings with the moron bureaucrats at the State Department who administer State. They usually have no clue what they are doing, so I’m not surprised from that point of view, but I’m also skeptical that they have any idea what they have really proposed.
An important question is, “Are gunsmiths, gun publications, and enthusiast fora subject to ITAR”? I doubt it, but it’s possible.
My company is subject to ITAR and we must jump through many silly hoops to ensure compliance. Much of it has to do with transfer of tecnically data to foreign governments, military, and industry. For example, we need to be real careful with what information is on our hard drives when we travel overseas. If there is a loophole that allows that information to be posted on corporate web sites, then it probably needs to be fixed.
ITAR grew out of the transfer of satellite technology to the CHICOMs during the CLINTON regime. The Clintons were likely implicit in this deal between Loral and the CHICOMs.
The author of the piece cited this. Maybe it will be helpful for looking into the matter.
“This latest regulatory assault, published in the June 3 issue of the Federal Register,...”
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-06-03/pdf/2015-12844.pdf
A scare hoax might also be used as an attempt to influence firearms issues discussion board owners toward making their sites private and subscriber-only. That, even though they would still be publicly available like libraries.