Jaybeth!!! Watch Your Summer Concerts....The Fed Is Wanting To Seize Guitars

[twyacht]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/washington-secrets/2012/05/feds-threaten-disrupt-summer-concerts/626621

Feds threaten to disrupt summer concerts
May 18, 2012 -- 1:12 PM
 
Lawmakers are scrambling to save the summer concert season from federal agents poised to seize the instruments of rock and country stars because the wood used to make them may have been illegally harvested--and without their knowledge.

“I don’t want the musicians from Nashville who are flying to Canada to perform this summer to worry about the government seizing their guitars,” said Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander.

Alexander, whose state is home to famed Gibson Guitars used by bands and stars like Van Halen, the Allman Brothers, Sheryl Crow, Ted Nugent and Paul McCartney, said Friday that he and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden are working to protect the artists, their instruments and makers and eventually change the law governing illegal wood harvesting.

“Senator Wyden and I are going to write the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a letter in the next couple of weeks and try to make it clear that wood harvested before 2008 to make musical instruments can’t be seized by the federal government,” Alexander said in a statement. “The Justice Department and Fish and Wildlife have said they have no intention of doing that, but Sen. Wyden and I are going to make it absolutely clear. We hope to get a clear ruling within a few weeks, and if we can’t get a clear ruling, we’ll introduce legislation to change the Lacey Act.”

The 112-year-old Lacey Act regulates the trade in bird feathers for hats and was amended in 2008 to cover wood and plants. The goal: make sure the woods used were not exported in violation of another country’s laws.

Their goal is to protect wooden instruments built with materials imported before 2008, when the Act was expanded. “This law was never intended to apply to those instruments,” said Alexander.

They are also working to help companies like Gibson--raided by the Feds recently--figure out what imports are legal.

Wyden and Alexander met with representatives from the music industry, wood import business and environmental and conservation groups Thursday to settle on a solution.

“We held this roundtable because instrument makers like Gibson Guitars in Tennessee are an important part of our music industry, and if the Lacey Act as written is keeping them from being able to get the wood they need to make instruments, we need to make every effort to fix the regulation,” said Alexander.

“The law was intended to prevent illegal logging and protect U.S. job that are threatened by illegal logging, it was never intended to seize instruments or wood products that were obtained prior to the passage of the Lacey Act amendments in May 2008 because they were made from imported wood—and when laws have unintended consequences, Congress has a responsibility to promptly make changes,” he added.


*****

I'd like to see them ATTEMPT seizing jaybeth's, Uncle Ted's, and other musicians vintage guitars....at a concert......Rowdy crowd, drinking and enjoying music,,,,,,FED stops show to seize guitars.......

Should work out well....

Freakin .govt clowns......

[tombogan03884]

The thing folks are missing is that they enforce this retroactively.
IIRC the stock they seized from Gibson was imported before the law was amended.
They have been doing the same thing with things like Ivory for years.

[twyacht]

The thing folks are missing is that they enforce this retroactively.
IIRC the stock they seized from Gibson was imported before the law was amended.
They have been doing the same thing with things like Ivory for years.

Yes, Ivory, but Martin, Taylor, Fender, PRS, all American guitar companies use the same wood,....only Gibson is owned by an outspoken Republican Supporter and Contributor....and was raided by armed Fed officials,......twice....

Hmmmmmmm..

[tombogan03884]

Yes, Ivory, but Martin, Taylor, Fender, PRS, all American guitar companies use the same wood,....only Gibson is owned by an outspoken Republican Supporter and Contributor....and was raided by armed Fed officials,......twice....

Hmmmmmmm..

Funny how that works, isn't it ?
No, I don't mean Ha Ha funny.

[jaybet]

I wonder how large of a goon squad they'll have out on THIS project?
There are very few (electric) guitars out there that you can tell the wood by looking....they have thick finishes, often opaque. Will they be taking small patches of finish off the instruments or maybe cutting off a corner to look? Stop the show and dissassemble your instrument please.

From the first lines of the report it sounds like this might be happening in Canada or at the borders?

Sadly we're paying for this insanity.

[Sponsor]

[Tyler Durden]

Sorry, I haven't googled this yet, but does anybody have any links to what the prez/CEO of Gibson has said that has come off as so republicanish/conservative that has made Gibson guitars the target on Obama's hit list?

so if I was the CEO of Martin, Fender, Taylor or PRS I coulf just bribe...errr... I mean make a campaign contribution to Obama to put my competitors out of business, right?

when you outlaw ebony , only outlaws will have ebony.

They can have my Gibson when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

[MikeBjerum]

Uncle Ted was on the list in the article.  We know he has had a little light lunch with the Secret Service already this year.  Sounds like things went pretty well.  However, I wonder how it would go if the federallies stormed his concert where he is know to swing from ropes (Tom, Tom, Tom ... Rope!), shoot his bow, and hold an AR.

What was it that Thomas Jefferson said about the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and when the government becomes tyrannical?  Uncle Ted understands his Constitutionally protected rights, and he is not going to go quietly!