Trump administration moves closer to easing gun exports
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has passed a key milestone in a long-delayed rule change that would make it easier to sell US firearms outside the United States, including assault rifles and ammunition, people briefed on the matter said.
The proposed rule changes, which would move oversight of commercial firearm exports from the US Department of State to the Department of Commerce, could be enacted as soon as the end of this year, the sources said late on Wednesday.
The move by President Donald Trump’s administration may generate business for gun makers such as American Outdoor Brands and Sturm Ruger & Company while increasing the sale of deadly weapons abroad. A relaxing of rules could increase foreign gun sales by as much as 20 per cent, the
National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has estimated.
While the State Department is primarily concerned with international threats to stability and maintains tight restrictions on weapons deals, the Commerce Department typically focuses on making it easier for US companies to sell products overseas.
Since taking office, Trump has been a far more outspoken booster of US weapons sales abroad than his recent predecessors, acting almost as a salesman for the US defence industry, analysts have said. Any move that would boost arms sales is also likely to earn enthusiastic support from the influential National Rifle Association as Trump’s re-election campaign heats up.
Critics, including some lawmakers and arms control advocates, have expressed concern that any easing of export rules could make powerful weapons of the type often used in US mass shootings more accessible to criminal gangs and militant groups that Trump has vowed to fight.
“This change will undermine congressional oversight, exacerbate the risk of international gun violence, human rights abuses, and armed conflict, and put US servicemen and women at risk from US weapons that have fallen into the wrong hands,” Rachel Stohl, a managing director at the Washington think-tank the Stimson Center, said in a statement.
A review of the rules by multiple US agencies including the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security concluded this week, the people said. Government records show the final rule was formally transmitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget on October 23.
This week’s close of the interagency comment period was a key milestone that enables the Trump administration to put lawmakers on notice of the intent to transfer formal oversight to the weapons sales from State to Commerce. Top officials at both departments still need to sign off on the issue before legislators can be notified.
Reuters first reported on the Trump administration’s interest in the oversight shift in 2017. The action is part of a broader Trump administration overhaul of weapons export policy.
The effort to streamline US small arms export controls dates back to an Obama administration initiative begun in 2009 that was never translated into policy.
“The move would reduce the regulatory burden and make industry members more competitive in the global marketplace without reducing oversight,” said Lawrence Keane, head of government and public affairs for the NSSF trade group, adding “there is more oversight at the Commerce Department.”