jkf
11hr ago
It's still a real hassle getting something as simple as a scope for a hunting rifle from the US to Canada -- which IIRC is ITAR (the hassle is on the US side, and there were some big fines for exporters before people started paying attention), and has been the case for a number of years.
Certainly an actual AGI would be a bigger threat to US national security than a nice cheap scope from SFRC, so I guess it makes sense?
Eh, there is a new-ish 'de minimus' exemption on paperwork for lots of things, but scopes are not those things AFAIK.
Many companies don't want to mess with even the low-value exemption in any case due to people getting hammered with huge fines in the past -- but without the exemption it's pretty onerous AIUI -- to get an export permit for a scope you need to (IIRC) fill out various convoluted permit forms on the US side, which also demand import authorization from the Canadian side -- which is not a thing that Canada cares about, but that makes it worse because there's nobody in charge of processing the forms that the US side is demanding!
There are people in Canada with associated FFLs in the US that will do it for a fee -- but that fee is like $300 bucks, which gives you some idea of the hassles involved. (again, pretty much all on the US export side -- Canada doesn't really make it too hard to import actual guns even, so long as they are otherwise in compliance with our somewhat Byzantine rules around whether they are legal to have at all)
Actually militarily useful technology is right out though, even if it has relevant consumer applications -- any sort of night vision would be a common example. And an AGI that lived up to the hype would certainly be better for harming America than some shitty NVGs...
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