New GAO Report Shows Need to Stem Illegal Gun Exports, Democratic Lawmakers Say
A new Government Accountability Office report found that 73% of firearms recovered from the Caribbean and traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from 2018 to 2022 could be sourced back to the U.S., underscoring the need to curb illegal gun exports to the region, a group of congressional Democrats said Nov. 14.
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House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said the firearms exports are “enabling gangs and transnational criminal networks to perpetrate crime that undermines U.S. national security and regional stability.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said the report reinforces the need for Congress to pass the Americas Regional Monitoring of Arms Sales Act, or ARMAS Act, which would transfer authority over small arms exports from the Commerce Department back to the State Department (see 2312080066). Castro has said the shift would "ensure greater accountability and transparency."
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., made a similar pitch for the Caribbean Arms Trafficking Causing Harm Act, or CATCH Act, which would require DOJ to provide an annual report to Congress on its efforts to curb illicit firearms sales from the U.S. to the Caribbean (see 2403290058).
In April, the Bureau of Industry and Security released a new interim final rule restricting firearms exports to 36 countries, most of which are in the Caribbean, Latin America and Southeast Asia (see 2404260054). In July, Castro and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged Commerce to make several changes to “strengthen” the rule (see 2407170049).