Democratic Lawmakers Urge Commerce to Toughen Gun Export Controls
Four Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sent Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo a series of recommendations for strengthening firearms export controls, Warren’s office said Jan. 24.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The letter, which also is signed by Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Reps. Joaquin Castro of Texas and Norma Torres of California, says that a surge of export license approvals in recent years has led to "horrific" mass killings in foreign countries, including El Salvador, Mexico and Thailand. "As more and more firearms have left American shores, their impact in other countries has worsened," the lawmakers wrote.
Their recommendations include reducing the validity of export licenses from four years to one, especially for destinations of concern; capping the number of exported firearms that can be covered by a single export license; using the State Department’s International Vetting and Security Tracking-cloud (INVESTc) system to identify problematic license applicants; adding "crime control" to the list of criteria Commerce regularly considers before approving a license; and committing to pre- and post-shipment transparency and end-use monitoring.
While the lawmakers ultimately favor reversing the Trump administration’s 2020 transfer of authority over small arms exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department (see 2001170030 and 2207150027), they said their recommendations could be implemented in the meantime.
The lawmakers sent the letter as the Bureau of Industry and Security neared the Jan. 25 expiration of its 90-day pause in issuing new commercial firearms export licenses (see 2310270068). BIS announced the pause on Oct. 27, saying it would allow Commerce to “more effectively assess and mitigate risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities” (see 2310270068).
"The Commerce Department’s decision to pause new firearm export approvals and promotion is welcome news," the Warren-led letter says. "We urge the Commerce Department to implement our recommendations in its review of its export policies, and if necessary, to extend the temporary pause as needed to reconsider its export policies as rigorously as possible."
House and Senate Republicans have criticized the pause, saying it is harming the domestic gun manufacturing industry (see 2312270043 and 2312270043).
Commerce and BIS didn't immediately respond to requests to comment on Warren’s letter or on published reports indicating they are considering new restrictions on gun exports. Some of those possible restrictions were outlined in a draft final rule, leaked in December, purported to be under consideration by BIS (see 2312260039).