The Trump Administration Wants to Make It Easier to Sell Guns Abroad
In a boon for the gun industry, the Trump administration is poised to issue new rules making it easier to sell firearms abroad. But opponents warn that the proposal may fuel weapons trafficking and weaken congressional oversight.
Under the proposed rules, the Commerce Department would assume regulatory authority over firearms that are not "inherently military" or are not "widely available for commercial sale"—in practice, most nonautomatic and semiautomatic guns. Unlike the State Department, which has traditionally vetted the sales over human rights and national security concerns, the Commerce Department is primarily concerned with job creation and economic growth.
"State is used to vetting on human rights grounds; they've got a special bureau to deal with it," said William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. "Although Commerce says they're going to get people with those skills … their mission in life is to push exports. That sort of culture is there."
Jeff Abramson of the Arms Control Association expects smuggling to increase if the rule is issued. "[Small arms] are particularly susceptible to illicit trade and transfer," Abramson said. The rule, now under regulatory review at the Office of Management and Budget, is scheduled to be published in the spring.
Most firearm manufacturers must currently register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls at the State Department, which helps the government keep tabs on the industry. Registrants must also purchase export licenses prior to selling these firearms, ammunition, and accessories to foreign buyers.
The State Department is required to inform Congress of any proposed sale over $1 million, thanks to a provision in the Arms Export Control Act.
Regulation at Commerce is typically more "flexible," notes the National Rifle Association's lobbying arm. Unlike State, the Commerce Department will not require manufacturers of regulated weapons to register, nor is it statutorily required to notify Congress of large weapons exports.
This is perhaps the biggest issue for lawmakers, who have used the authority to hold up weapons sales in the past. The threshold was first added in 2002 by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who coauthored a letter with Sen. Ben Cardin in September of 2017 opposing its extinction. Cardin, who used the procedure to block the sale of roughly 26,000 assault rifles to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017, came out against the change again this May, calling it "politically tone deaf."
Rep. Norma Torres in January introduced legislation to block the transfer to Commerce outright, which she plans to reintroduce in the next Congress. The bill was cosponsored by Rep. Eliot Engel, who will likely be the next House Foreign Affairs Committee chair.
"This is not sugar. This is not almonds. These are dangerous weapons," said Torres, who added that security partners in South America have repeatedly warned they are unable to contain the flood of American-made weapons. "If anything, we need to help [the State Department]. We need to make sure they have the tools in order to provide the information that Congress needs to make these decisions."
The State Department has said the change is one piece of overdue reforms to the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, the framework under which arms sales are conducted. Those reforms, begun during the Obama administration, are meant to refocus regulation on sensitive military equipment. Commercial firearms are widely available for purchase in the U.S., making them subject to transfer.
"The movement of certain firearms to the Commerce Department will allow for more tailored export controls of items," a State Department official told National Journal.
The official said that Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, which is tasked with overseeing the sales, is prepared to conduct robust end-use monitoring of the weapons given its experience licensing shotguns and shotgun ammunition. The BIS estimates that the changes will save the government thousands of hours because Commerce's licensing and export forms are easier to review.
The change is also strongly supported by the firearm industry, which has seen domestic sales decline since Trump took office. The BIS found that 10,000 applicants would move from State to Commerce every year, netting firearm manufacturers $2.5 million in reduced licensing fees annually.
"The definition of manufacturing as interpreted by DDTC includes gunsmithing operations that are done by small mom-and-pop gunsmiths all over the country that are required under the law to register," said Lawrence Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Johanna Reeves, director of the Firearms and Ammunition Import/Export Roundtable, said that the DTTC regulations were "sorely outdated" because they controlled items "widely available throughout the world."
"Thumb screws are widely available," responded Hartung. "That doesn't mean we sell them to torturers. … I think [the reforms] are just serving their interest in wanting to make it easier to sell stuff. The whole point of it from their point of view is to sell more firearms, so part of that is less monitoring and less scrutiny."
Source: Harrison Cramer