Obama Criminalizes Antique Dealers
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Godfather Politics ^ | March 19, 2014 | Dave Jolly
In typical know nothing bleeding heart conservationist style of knee jerk reacting, Obama has placed a ban on the sale of all ivory regardless of when it was originally purchased.
That means that antique dealers, art dealers, auctioneers and private collectors are not allowed to sell anything made from ivory. Your family could own a piece of carved ivory that is over 100 years old, obtained legally and now worth several hundred thousand dollars, but you can never sell it to anyone else, legally.
Additionally, the ban also applies to the import of any ivory; even if it is a legal piece of artwork or a treasured antique. In the past, a person or art dealer could purchase and import a legal piece of ivory artwork for his own collection or to be auctioned off, but not any longer.
Obama also banned the export of all ivory products except antiques. Their definition of antique is anything more than 100 years old.
If your great, great grandfather had traveled to Africa and legally killed an elephant and brought its tusks home and they are setting up in a corner in your living room, you are stuck with them. If you lose your job and are facing foreclosure and bankruptcy and the tusks together are worth $500,000, too bad because you can’t sell them to anyone, legally.
In the end, some law abiding citizens will get desperate and try to sell their ivory pieces to rich collectors, only to end up being busted and imprisoned. The black market price of ivory will skyrocket further, making it more tempting for poachers to kill more elephants. In some areas of Africa, one large set of tusks is the equivalent to a year’s income for a family. In times of hunger, that temptation becomes a strong motive to turn good people into illegal poachers. The amount of elephant poaching is sure to rise as the price of their ivory on the black market goes higher and higher. Thus, Obama’s irrational decision will only lead to the illegal slaughter of more elephants, rather than helping to save them.
Why Obama did this is probably for the same reason he is forcing Christians to violate their faith or go out of business – because he can. There is no other logical reason for this ban on the sale of legal ivory other than to add to Obama’s power trip and ego as America’s first supreme dictator. |
