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   STATEMENT OF DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL JAMES COLE REGARDING INFORMATION REQUESTS FOR MULTIPLE SALES OF SEMI-AUTOMATIC RIFLES WITH DETACHABLE MAGAZINES

   WASHINGTON - Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued the following statement today regarding information requests for multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines in select states along the Southwest Border:

   "The international expansion and increased violence of transnational criminal networks pose a significant threat to the United States.  Federal, state and foreign law enforcement agencies have determined that 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.  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 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to detect and disrupt the illegal weapons trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations.  These targeted information requests will occur in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to help confront the problem of illegal gun trafficking into Mexico and along the Southwest Border."

   SOME BACKGROUND FROM DOJ:

   To address the problem of illegal gun trafficking into Mexico, ATF will send an information request to Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) in the four Southwest Border states:  Texas, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The point of this request is to provide a targeted approach to address the problem of illegal gun trafficking through sales to "straw purchasers," people who claim to be the true buyers of firearms but in reality are purchasing firearms on behalf of others.

   

   ATF will tailor the information request to address the specific threat.  It applies only to firearms dealers in the four border states, and its prospective reporting requirements apply only if a firearms dealer sells within five business days to a single individual two or more long guns having all of the following characteristics:

   

   o          Semi-automatic action;

   o          A caliber greater than .22, including .223 caliber firearms; and

   o          The ability to accept a detachable magazine.

   

   The issuance of ATF's information request follows two periods of public notice and comment, as required by law.  On December 17, 2010, ATF published a notice in the Federal Register requesting public comments on the information request for 60 days.  After reviewing the comments submitted in response to this notice, ATF published a second notice in the Federal Register on April 29, 2011, requesting public comments for 30 days.  OMB reviewed the last set of public comments before approving the information collection request.  

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“This political maneuver seems designed to protect the careers of political appointees at the Justice Department and not public safety.  It’s disconcerting that Justice Department officials who may have known about or tried to cover-up gunwalking in Operation Fast and Furious are continuing attempts to distract attention from clear wrongdoing.  In Operation Fast and Furious, gun dealers didn’t need this regulation as they voluntarily provided ATF agents with information about suspected straw purchasers.  In return for this voluntary cooperation, the Justice Department betrayed them by offering false assurances that they would closely monitor sales of weapons that dealers otherwise did not want to make.”

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“We’ve learned from our investigation of Fast and Furious that 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.  In fact, in just the documents we’ve obtained, we are aware of 150 multiple long guns sales associated with the ATF’s Fast and Furious case, and despite the fact that nearly all of these sales were reported in real time by cooperating gun dealers, the ATF watched the guns be transported from known straw purchasers to third parties and then let the guns walk away, often across the border.  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.”

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   Now, the very critics who have tied the bureau’s hands are expressing outrage over a novel, and we would agree questionable, ATF operation intended to curb gun smuggling into Mexico…

   Those who would clobber the bureau for possible mistakes should look in the mirror and accept some responsibility for its failings.

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   "Giving the ATF corruptocrats more power at this point would result in more weapons for the Mexican drug gangs. Talk about rewarding bad behavior.

   "Don't give them more power. Give them and the higher ups at the Justice Department who have approved Fast &  Furious jail time."—Alan Gottlieb, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

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To help combat firearms trafficking into Mexico, ATF began Project Gunrunner as a pilot project in Laredo, Texas, in 2005 and expanded it as a national initiative in 2006. Project Gunrunner is also part of the Department's broader Southwest Border Initiative, which seeks to reduce cross-border drug and firearms trafficking and the high level of violence  associated with these activities on both sides of the border.

   In June 2007, ATF published a strategy document, Southwest Border Initiative:  Project Gunrunner (Gunrunner strategy), outlining four key components to Project Gunrunner: the expansion of gun tracing in Mexico, international coordination, domestic activities, and intelligence. In implementing Project Gunrunner, ATF has focused resources in its four Southwest border field divisions. In addition, ATF has made firearms trafficking to Mexico a top ATF priority nationwide.

[DOJ IG report, Review of ATF's Project Gunrunner, November 2010]
http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e1101.pdf