Trump To End Ban On Selling Military Equipment To Local Police by Aaron Kesel

President Donald Trump is preparing to lift a 2015 military weapons ban initiated by his predecessor former President Barack Obama. The executive order effectively banned armored vehicles and large-caliber weapons from being acquired by local police departments across the nation, which effectively declares war on America’s streets, NY Post reported.

Obama’s Executive order 13688 banned the use of Defense Department armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms, and large-caliber weapons and ammunition from America’s law enforcement.

With that act now repealed, Trump is allowing weapons made for war onto the streets of the United States – weapons that are designed to kill.

That’s not all the order prohibited; the purchase of weaponized aircraft such as drones, manned aircraft, armored and tactical vehicles command and control vehicles and more, according to Popular Mechanics.

At the time of the ban, Obama said that he was enacting the order because “equipment made for the battlefield is not appropriate for local police departments.”

“So we’re going to prohibit some equipment made for the battlefield that is not appropriate for local police departments,” Obama said. “There’s other equipment that may be needed in certain cases, but only with proper training.”

Congress enacted the National Defense Authorization Act in 1990, then called the 1208 program. In 1997, Congress replaced Section 1208 of the NDAA with Section 1033, which allowed the Pentagon to give their excess equipment to police fighting the war on drugs. They further added a section about counterterrorism to the bill, opening up a new list of equipment to be used by the police for whatever reason they saw fit under the 1033 program.

However, plans seen by USA Today claim that the Trump’s Administration wants to restore “the full scope of a longstanding program for recycling surplus, life-saving gear from the Department of Defense, along with restoring the full scope of grants used to purchase this type of equipment from other sources.”

“Assets that would otherwise be scrapped can be repurposed to help state, local and tribal law enforcement better protect public safety and reduce crime.”

“Much of the equipment provided through the 1033 program is entirely defensive in nature … that protect officers in active shooter scenarios and other dangerous situations,” the Trump administration proposal said.

The New York Post reported the publication did a review of the federal program in December 2014 and found that New York state greatly benefited from the supplies. Law enforcement agencies throughout the state accumulated an estimate of 4,000 pieces of surplus military equipment valued at more than $26 million, including 300 M-16 and M-14 military rifles, mine-resistant vehicles and Humvees.

Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post and is Director of Content for Coinivore. Follow Aaron at Twitter and Steemit.