Thread: ATF to require gun buyer information on border

ATF to require gun buyer information on border

By PETE YOST, Associated Press – 8 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an effort to stem the illicit flow of weapons into Mexico, the Justice Department announced Monday that all gun shops in four Southwest border states will be required to alert the federal government to frequent buyers of high-powered rifles.

The new policy comes amid criticism of a flawed federal probe aimed at dismantling large-scale arms trafficking networks along the Arizona border with Mexico.

In the probe, called Operation Fast and Furious, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say they were inexplicably ordered by superiors to stop tracking some small-time "straw" buyers who purchased large numbers of weapons apparently destined for drug cartels.

Twenty low-level gun buyers have been charged in the operation. In December, two assault rifles that one of the now-indicted small-time buyers under scrutiny in Fast and Furious had purchased from a gun shop in Glendale, Ariz., turned up at the scene of a shootout that killed Brian Terry, an agent of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In recent congressional testimony, ATF agent John Dodson estimated that 1,800 guns in Fast and Furious were unaccounted for and that about two-thirds are probably in Mexico.

Under the new policy, federal firearms licensees in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico must report purchases of two or more of some types of rifles by the same person in a five-day span. The requirement applies to purchases of semi-automatic rifles that have detachable magazines and a caliber of greater than .22.

ATF estimates it will generate 18,000 reports a year.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the new reporting measure will improve the ATF's ability to disrupt illegal weapons trafficking networks that funnel firearms to criminal organizations

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the new policy "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."

One of the critics of Operation Fast and Furious called the new policy "the height of hypocrisy." The Obama administration is restricting the gun rights of border state citizens, "when the administration knowingly and intentionally allowed guns to be trafficked into Mexico," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas.

"Limiting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens is not going to solve the problem," Smith said.

Mexico's federal security spokesman, Alejandro Poire, praised Obama's action.

ATF estimates the requirement will cover nearly 8,500 gun store operators in the four states, though less than 30 percent of those operators are expected to have multiple sales to report.

ATF will retain the information and if no investigative leads have been realized after two years, it will be purged.

Holders of federal firearms licenses already report multiple sales of handguns. The results go to the National Tracing Center, and ATF says it has led to successful prosecutions for firearms trafficking.

www.google.com

Dang, it's gonna take a while to clean my screen after spitting up my drink while reading this one.

U.S. to require more gun-buyer information in border states

Gun dealers in states bordering Mexico will have to report whenever they sell more than two semiautomatic rifles to someone in a five-day period.


By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

July 12, 2011
Reporting from Washington—

As a backlash mounts over the government's failed Fast and Furious gun-tracing operation, the Justice Department will begin requiring firearms dealers in California and other border states to alert officials anytime they sell more than two semiautomatic rifles to someone in a five-day period.

The new reporting requirement will help the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "detect and disrupt" border gun-smuggling operations, Deputy Atty. Gen. James Cole said Monday.

Once the ATF distributes its new reporting forms, about 7,000 dealers near the border must report multiple sales of semiautomatic weapons in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Such weapons "are highly sought after by dangerous drug-trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest border," Cole said.

Republican critics quickly denounced the measure, saying it was wrong for the Obama administration to let illegal guns get into the hands of Mexican cartels in Operation Fast and Furious, and then require more monitoring of legitimate gun owners in the U.S. Under the program, the ATF permitted illegal straw purchasers to obtain weapons as part of a plan to trace the guns as they flowed to Mexico.

"It's the height of hypocrisy," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), who is leading the House investigation into Fast and Furious, called it a "political maneuver designed to protect the careers of political appointees at the Justice Department and not public safety."

Cole made no mention of Fast and Furious. U.S. authorities lost track of most of the weapons, and many were later found at crime scenes in Mexico. In December, two turned up at the slaying of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona.

Smith said the administration should target the cartels rather than monitor legal gun purchases in the U.S. He also said a recent government report found that only 40% of the border is under "operational control" of the Border Patrol.

"They simply need to secure the Southwest border, not restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens," he said.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, agreed. He called the new measure a "reckless policy" that "would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms."

www.latimes.com

What a show! Now the Obama administration is going to feign interest in stopping guns from going into Mexico.

I believe these bureaucrats are flat busted arming an army invading America, and they have been sweating bullets in their offices all weekend trying to figure out what to do.

So they come out on Monday trying to play tough on gun sales near the border.

Each time a person buys an assault rifle, their name and info go right to the feds at the stores! The feds already have this information and for the Justice Department to act like they are about to do something new is a big bunch of BULL CRAP!

These people should be sent to Mexico for trial.

W

New border gun rules a distraction from Fast and Furious scandal, Issa says

7/11/2011

Matthew Boyle

The Obama administration bolstered sales reporting requirements Monday for gun dealers in the southern border states of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

The new requirements have already been criticized by Darrell Issa, House oversight committee chairman, as nothing more than an attempt to deflect attention from the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.

The new rules require gun dealers to report an individual who makes multiple semi-automatic weapon purchases within a five-day period.

Issa, a California Republican, blasted the administration in an interview with the Daily Caller.

“This political maneuver seems designed to protect the careers of political appointees at the Justice Department and not public safety,â€

Heard Dana Perino comment on Fast and Furious today and said it is quite the buzz in DC and she doesn't think this issue will go away soon.

NRA: We'll sue over new reporting rule for multiple gun buys
July 11, 2011
Josh Gerstein

The National Rifle Association is vowing to sue the Obama administration after it announced Monday that it will begin to require gun dealers in four border states to send reports to the government following multiple sales of some semi-automatic longarms.

"They don’t have the statutory authority to do it and we’ll file a lawsuit as soon as the first letters are sent" demanding the sales information from dealers, the NRA's legislative director Chris Cox told POLITICO Monday afternoon.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced in December that it planned to implement the rule on an emergency basis beginning in January in order to reduce the flow of assault weapons across the border into Mexico. However, the Office of Management and Budget rejected the emergency "information collection" and told ATF to proceed with a full, formal process and public comment period. The final proposed rule was made public on April 29.

Obama administration officials denied that the decision to proceed with the new reporting requirement or the timing of its implementation had anything to do with the controversy over and Congressional investigation into an ATF's "Operation Fast & Furious," which allegedly lost track of more than 100 weapons suspected of being headed for Mexican drug cartels. Two of those weapons showed up at the scene of the killing of a Border Patrol agent in December.

"The White House did not delay its consideration of ATF’s request," OMB spokeswoman Meg Reilly said. She said "OMB determined after careful review that ATF’s request did not satisfy" the standards for an emergency data collection and was required to go through the full notice and comment process before implementation.

Cox accused the Obama administration of making an end-run around Congress, which has approved mandatory reporting of multiple handgun purchases, but did not include long-arms or so-called assault weapons in that requirement.

"Because the American people don't approve of his gun-control agenda, he's trying to circumvent Congress, the NRA official said of Obama. "The whole thing is a disraction away from the gross incompetence that we’ve seen in this Fast & Furious scandal...The truth is a $40 billion criminal enterprise is not going to be worried about paperwork violations. This is not a serious attempt at controlling the drug cartels."

However, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the reporting requirement--which does not block any purchases--will help in that fight.

"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 a statement. "This new reporting measure -- tailored to focus only on multiple sales of these types of rifles to the same person within a five-day period -- will improve the ability [of the government] to detect and disrupt the illegal weapons trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations."

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been pushing for answers about Fast & Furious, also said he believes the new rule is a diversion.

"Reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions," Grassley said in a statement. He said Congressional investigators are aware of at least150 long gun sales that ATF knew about but didn't prevent from reaching Mexico.

"This makes it pretty clear that the problem isn’t lack of burdensome reporting requirements. The administration’s continued overreach with regulations continues, and is a distraction from its reckless policy to allow guns to walk into Mexico," Grassley said.

The ATF operation is also under investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General.

A Justice Department spokeswoman had no comment on the NRA's planned lawsuit.

The Obama administration's decision to move forward with the new reporting rule for long guns purchased in border states was first reported by Newsweek/Daily Beast.

www.politico.com