David Codrea: Carter SecDef nomination raises concerns for gun owners

Senate hearings are scheduled to begin next week on Barack Obama’s nomination of Ashton Carter for Secretary of Defense, Fox News reported Sunday. And while the primary thrust of those hearings will be in determining the nominee’s suitability for leading the nation in managing “widespread, military-related challenges around the globe,” the placement of Carter at the head of the Department of Defense also poses unique concerns for gun owners.

That Carter is an elite establishment player is unquestionable. Earning degrees from Yale, being a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, going on to being “chair of the International and Global Affairs faculty at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government,” and holding various White House positions in the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, we’re looking at a consummate insider. His having strong ties with Goldman Sachs and the Council on Foreign Relations should come as no surprise to anyone who follows how those at the top of the political food chain are connected.

That Obama’s “Pentagon procurement czar” is a doctrinaire Democrat is also evidenced by his substantial campaign contributions to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, among others (albeit, he also donated over various cycles to anti-gun establishment “Republican” Dick Lugar). Still, those associations in and of themselves don’t relate how Carter would be able to use the position of Secretary of Defense to impact gun owners.

Here’s one area that it might: In following up on reports of military installations destroying expended ammunition brass rather than making it available to the commercial reload market, this column uncovered a copy of a June 23, 2011 memorandum from Carter on “Department of Defense (DoD) Implementing Guidance for the Commercial Sale of Expended Small Arms Cartridge Cases (ESACC).”

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