From: George Gruhn [mailto:ggruhn@gruhn.com]
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 12:19 PM
Subject: FW: presidential executive order banning commercial trade of ivory
The information below will be the primary subject of my comments in the Friday staff meeting. This past Tuesday President Obama signed an executive order which effectively bans almost all commercial trade in ivory or any products containing ivory. Importation of ivory, regardless of age, would be prohibited. It would be legal to export ivory only it was certifiably over 100 years of age. It would be legal to make interstate shipments within the USA of any products containing ivory only if these products could be certified as being over 100 years of age. It would be legal to sell items containing ivory within the state in which a dealer is located only if they were made prior to the mid-1990s, and then only with a special government issued permit for each item. Based on government statements issued so far it would be illegal for a customer to send us a guitar with any ivory components from outside of Tennessee so it would be illegal for us to buy such instruments even if we wished to remove the ivory before selling them.
These regulations extend far beyond the musical instrument industry, however, vintage fretted instrument dealers would be hit especially hard since all Martin guitars made prior to the early 1970s contain elephant ivory nuts and saddles which were perfectly legal at the time these instruments were made. These regulations will not go into effect the earlier than mid summer and there will be a period in which public comments can be submitted before it goes into effect, however, the environmental lobbyists have made it very clear that they oppose any modification or compromises to the regulations.
It would be ironic if our federal government were to criminalize dealing vintage instruments because some of them contain a few grams of ivory harvested 40 or more years ago, but this is not a satirical fantasy - the presidential executive order has been issued. NAMM and other trade groups will lobby on this issue, but they are not nearly as well funded as the environmental lobbyists. It is especially ironic that the musical instrument industry is being targeted since guitar makers and players as a group are some of the most environmentally conscious of all USA citizens. We face an uphill battle to bring common sense to this issue, however, we can be 100% certain that if we do not put forth effort to educate our legislators and governmental officials that virtually all trade in vintage Martin guitars and many other instruments will be halted.
George