WASHINGTON — The Obama administration implemented its most aggressive and controversial gun measure to date Monday when it ordered dealers in four Southwestern states to report multiple sales of semiautomatic rifles to the federal firearms bureau.
The rule, which had been adamantly opposed by the National Rifle Association and many members of Congress, takes effect immediately and is meant to stem gunrunning to violent Mexican drug gangs. It requires about 8,500 dealers operating in the border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to alert authorities when a person buys within five days two or more semiautomatic rifles greater than .22 caliber with detachable magazines.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the rule will help the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “detect and disrupt the illegal weapons- trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations.”
The administration has been loath to take on the gun lobby, and one anti-gun group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, has given Obama a failing grade on gun violence. But pro-gun activists seized on the decision, made by the White House Office of Management and Budget, to accuse the administration of trying to take attention away from a bungled ATF anti-smuggling operation.
Congress is investigating the ATF operation, code-named “Fast and Furious,” which aimed to take down cartels trading in drugs and guns.
ATF leaders admit that they made some mistakes in their strategy of letting obvious straw buyers continue to make purchases once they had been tagged as suspected gunrunners for Mexican cartels.
The Washington Post reported in February that two guns linked to the Fast and Furious investigation were found at the scene of the killing of a Border Patrol agent.
Many current and former ATF agents said that if the new reporting rule had already been in place, it might have deterred the types of mistakes made in Fast and Furious.
But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the rule is a distraction from the errors of the ATF and simply imposes on dealers “burdensome reporting requirements.”
Mexico under fire
35,000 Number of people killed in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and launched an effort to wipe out violent drug cartels
70 percent Percentage of weapons recovered in Mexico — most often rifles styled on AK-47s and AR-15s — that originated in the United States
Source: Senate report on data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
