The Biden administration furthered its regulatory war on the American firearm industry this month with the announcement of a rule that will permanently extend what was supposed to be a short-term “pause” on licenses for gun exports to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) plans to publish an interim final rule on April 30 that will make it harder for American gun companies that rely on foreign exports to stay in business.
The BIS announced in October 2023 that it would cease issuing new export licenses for some guns and ammunition to review policies that it claimed might increase the “risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, abuse or violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities, including terrorism, extortion, and illicit trafficking of any kind.” The licensing interruption was only supposed to last 90 days.
At the behest of congressional Democrats who blame U.S. gun manufacturers for international death and destruction, the agency began working on an interim final rule that extended the pause and revamped what it deemed insufficient licensing and other export requirements. The new policy also enacts a “presumption of denial” for firearms exports to NGOs in dozens of countries.
BIS claims the changes will “better protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests” by further preventing cartels and other criminal organizations from stealing or illegally purchasing American weapons.
“The days of exporting military-style weapons to civilians in unstable countries are over,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo explained to Reuters. “Under our new review process, it will be much harder to export these weapons to civilians in countries that pose national security risks.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), however, found that firearms that were internationally traced and recovered between 2016 and 2020 made up less than 1 percent of the more than 2.7 million guns lawfully exported from the U.S. during those years.
In reality, the rule appears to further burden American gun companies with regulatory hoops that will entrench the “significant losses” they suffered after the October 2023 halt.
Americans will have 60 days to comment on the rule, which goes into effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
Firearms industry advocacy groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation have already slammed the policy as another attempt by the Biden regime and Democrats to “turn the levers of government against a Constitutionally-protected industry in order to cozy up to special-interest gun control donors.”
“The supposed ‘temporary pause’ to review firearm export policies was a farce,” NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane explained in a statement. “It was an effort to buy the administration time to gin up policies that would strike at the heart of the ability of this industry to stay in business. This has been the end goal since President Biden said from the Democratic debate stage that ‘firearm manufacturers are the enemy.’ This is a wholesale attack on the industry that provides the means for Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights.”
