A Trump administration
Trump administration may make it easier to sell weapons overseas
proposal could spread U.S. guns overseas. Under the plan, a large number of rifles and handguns would move off a munitions list controlled by the State Department and onto a different one at the business-friendly Commerce Department.
WASHINGTON — U.S. gun makers are on the verge of getting something they’ve wanted for a long time: a streamlined process for exporting their handguns and rifles, including AR-15 assault-style weapons that have been the focus of national debate.
Under a long-awaited rule the Trump administration is expected to propose soon, a large number of commercially available rifles and handguns would move off a munitions list controlled by the State Department and onto a different one at the businessfriendly Commerce Department.
Whether that means gendarmes in Marseilles or policia in Barcelona will be packing Smith & Wesson pistols anytime soon is yet to be seen, but it and other iconic American brands like Sturm Ruger and the eventual owners of privately held Remington Outdoor are expected to benefit from any new policy.
Opponents of relaxing the export rules argue that decision could come back to haunt the United States if the weapons end up in the wrong hands. Gun manufacturers counter that the changes don’t eliminate regulation, but would let them conduct business overseas more easily.
“U.S. manufacturers are hamstrung by the overly restrictive license requirements under (current law),” said Michael Bazinet, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a lobbying and trade association for gun makers, based in Newtown, Conn. “Lengthy delays in the licensing process, and certain cases requiring congressional notification, cause U.S. firearm and ammunition exporters to lose business.”
Gun makers are already hurting from slumping domestic gun sales since President Donald Trump took office. The NSSF hopes foreign sales — to sportsmen, collectors and police agencies — could grow by as much as 20 percent under less cumbersome rules, which it has lobbied for over almost a decade. In 2017, the trade group spent more than $3.3 million lobbying the federal government, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, on this and other issues.
The market for exports of commercially available rifles and handguns is relatively small, dwarfed by sales of military hardware and limited, in part, by many countries restricting the ability of their citizens to own firearms.
Overseas shipments of revolvers and pistols totaled under $117 million last year, while shipments of targetshooting rifles totaled $17.1 million; exports of AR-15s and other assault-style weapons came to $13.3 million, according to the International Trade Commission. Abroad, U.S. gun companies compete against established names such as Austria’s Glock and Italy’s Beretta.
The initiative to relax rules covering the export of firearms has been contemplated since 2010, under then-President Barack Obama. But after the December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, which left 20 children and six adults dead, work on the issue stopped.
The Trump administration — in part to fulfill a campaign pledge by Donald Trump to boost U.S. manufacturing writ large — jumpstarted the process, and by last September the changes seemed to be on a fast track.
It’s unclear whether the deadly Oct. 1, 2017, mass murder on the Las Vegas strip, where Stephen Paddock killed 58 and injured 851 by firing more than 1,100 rounds from his hotel window at people attending a nearby musical festival, slowed the review process. More mass shootings have followed, including the Feb. 14 attack at a high school in Parkland, Fla., which killed 17 and injured as many more.
Any changes to the process are complicated: The State Department must propose a new rule that eliminates some of the weapons on the U.S. Munitions List over which it has authority, and the Commerce Department must simultaneously draft new language to add those weapons to the Commerce Control List.
Adding to the difficulty is that this administration has been historically slow to fill mid-level positions across the federal government. Some of the planned changes are waiting for a signoff from deputy directors and office heads who are yet to be put in place almost 15 months after Donald Trump’s inauguration, people familiar with the process said.
Sources familiar with the rules changes under consideration said one improvement would be a more flexible process for export licensing for those guns on the Commerce Department’s list. An exporter could sell different products within a range, caliber or quantity over a window of, say, six months with one license. As long as the products were variations of the same gun, multiple licenses would no longer be needed.
Under a shift to Commerce’s control, gun makers would “be able to respond better to market fluctuations for commercial sales in foreign countries, as well as compete on a more level playing field for foreign government and police contracts,” Bazinet said.
Commerce said it already has a framework in place to oversee the export process: an export-control enforcement office, an export-licensing agency and an enduse verification program that govern export of 12gauge shotguns, optical sighting devices for firearms and crime-control equipment.
In the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security reported conducting 1,089 in-person checks in 58 countries to verify the identity of buyers of weapons under Commerce jurisdiction.
Those who argue against making it easier for U.S. weapons manufacturers to sell overseas maintain that the exported weapons could wind up being used against Americans in conflicts abroad.
“The bigger picture is with the loosening of controls, it adds a lot more opportunities for U.S. guns to get into the hands of people who would misuse them, including people the United States is fighting against,” said Colby Goodman, an arms control expert at the Center for International Policy, a left-leaning think tank that tracks and analyzes U.S. security and defense assistance across the globe.
Administration officials bristle at this suggestion.
“This transfer will not create opportunities to put weapons in the hands of bad actors,” Rich Ashooh, assistant secretary of commerce for export administration, insisted in a statement. “The proposed changes will allow the Commerce Department to use its expertise and resources through its in-agency law enforcement unit, and its robust end-use verification program.”