The Justice Department announced Monday it will go ahead with controversial rules that will expand reporting requirements for high-caliber gun sales in states bordering Mexico in an attempt to combat violence and illegal gun trafficking across the border.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole said in a statement that the expanded reporting requirements will focus only on multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles larger than .22 caliber to single buyers within a five-day period.
“Federal, state and foreign law enforcement agencies have determined that certain types of semi-automatic rifles – greater than .22 caliber and with the ability to accept a detachable magazine – are highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest Border,” Cole said in the statement.
The reporting requirements – called “targeted information requests” in department parlance – will affect gun sales in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
Cole also said the measure would strengthen the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ ability to “detect and disrupt illegal gun trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations.”
The administration had been taking public comment on the proposed rules for the past few months. It extended the comment period in April after receiving about 13,000 responses, about 70 percent of which were favorable.
But the measure also has many critics. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the House Judiciary Committee chairman, in a statement said the measure unfairly restricted gun sales to citizens in border states.
“Limiting the second amendment rights of law abiding citizens is not going to solve the problem of guns being trafficked into Mexico,” Smith said. “If the Obama administration is serious about preventing guns from being trafficked to Mexico, they simply need to secure the Southwest border, not restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens.”
The National Rifle Association also opposed the change, saying that the administration was using gun crimes in Mexico as an excuse to limit firearms sales.
Reps. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) and Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) even attempted to include a provision in a recent omnibus spending bill, which funds most federal programs, that would have prohibited the use of federal funds to enforce the measure. But their amendment was dropped at the last minute, after lobbying from several lawmakers and Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S.
The new rules also come amid a froth of controversy over the ATF’s botched gun-trafficking operation, known as Operation “Fast and Furious,” which allegedly allowed the sale of thousands of firearms to straw purchasers who then took them across the border to Mexico.
Two guns sold in the operation were recovered at the scene of a December 2010 shootout near Rio Rico, Ariz., between Border Patrol agents and Mexican bandits, which ended in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry.
Fox News reported Monday that Terry’s family is considering suing the federal government for his death.
Revelations regarding the operation set off a congressional investigation, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the Senate Judiciary committee’s ranking Republican. The two congressman have focused their efforts on holding high-level DOJ and ATF officials accountable for authorizing the risky program.
But last month, Democratic committee members led by ranking member Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) attempted to shift the focus of the investigation by hosting a forum to discuss strengthening gun reporting requirements and the ATF’s ability to prosecute gun traffickers. In a statement Monday, Cummings applauded the new reporting measures and reiterated plans to introduce legislation with Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) to establish a dedicated gun-trafficking statute.
“This is exactly what ATF agents on the ground told Congress – that reporting multiple sales of military-grade assault weapons is a crucial tool to identify and disrupt Mexican drug cartels engaged in gun trafficking,” Cummings said. “Congress needs to step up to the plate and empower our law enforcement agents with the tools they need to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals, protect communities on both sides of the border, and to ensure that they are not outgunned.”
Referring to the ATF scandal, Smith called the new reporting requirements “the height of hypocrisy for the Obama administration to restrict the gun rights of border state citizens, when the administration itself knowingly and intentionally allowed guns to be trafficked into Mexico.”
