Warren, Durbin, Castro, Torres to Commerce Department: Prevent Gun Violence Abroad by Strengthening Firearm Export Controls

Letter

Dear Secretary Raimondo:
We are writing in response to the Commerce Department's ("Commerce", "the Department") decision to temporarily pause approvals of new firearms export licenses and export promotion activity while it
reviews the Department's relevant policies and procedures.This is a positive development, coming after the number of firearms export license approvals skyrocketed when the Trump Administration transferred firearms export control authority from the State Department ("State") to Commerce.The transfer--and the resulting increase in lethal weapons exports--has driven up gun violence in foreign countries, which in turn has driven more and more migration.While we continue to support returning all firearms export controls to the State Department, we urge the Commerce Department to incorporate the recommendations in this letter as part of its policy review in the interim, in order to strengthen export controls and end-use checks and to crack down on unnecessary export promotion of weapons used in brutal killings abroad.

On October 27, 2023, the Commerce Department announced a 90-day pause of export approvals of
certain firearms, related components, and ammunition while the Department reviews its export control policies and "determine[s] whether any changes are warranted." The pause on exports applies to certain assault weapons and other firearms that the Trump Administration had transferred from the export jurisdiction of State to Commerce. Commerce also paused the International Trade Administration's (ITA) activities to promote exports of those weapons. However, the pause does not apply to applications to export firearms to 44 countries, including Ukraine, Israel, and Mexico. The 90-day pause period will end on January 25, 2024.

Commerce's decision to initiate the pause and review process was welcome, but sorely needed. When
some of us last wrote to you to raise our concerns about Commerce's lackluster oversight of firearms
exports in September 2023, the Department's most recently published data on firearms exports and
license approvals dated from June 2021. Later in the fall of 2023, the Department at long last published new data for July 2021 to June 2023 that once again showed a marked increase in license approvals. These new data show that from March 9, 2020 (the date of the Trump Administration's transfer) to June 30, 2023, Commerce approved nearly 25,000 firearms export licenses with a total value of $34.7 billion, or roughly $10.5 billion per year. This represents a more than $1 billion increase in the annual value of license approvals as compared to the time period when the State Department controlled these approvals.

As more and more firearms have left American shores, their impact in other countries has worsened.
Reports abound of U.S.-manufactured weapons being used in horrific killings across the globe. In
Thailand in October 2022, a gunman entered a nursery school and used an American-made Sig Sauer
pistol to murder 36 people, including 23 children. In March 2022--the month with the most semiautomatic firearms exports from the U.S. to El Salvador in the previous four years--gang violence in that country killed a record 62 people.

U.S.-manufactured weapons have also had devastating impacts in countries that are not subject to the current pause. In June 2021, gunmen using U.S.-made firearms went on an eight hour-plus killing and kidnapping spree in Mexico. There is also evidence to suggest that soldiers and civilian militias in Israel are using American-made semiautomatic weapons to perpetrate shocking violence against Palestinian civilians.The risks to civilians likely only increased after the Israeli government loosened gun ownership requirements and authorized "temporary licensing official[s]" with only a single day of
training to approve "anywhere from hundreds to thousands of firearm licenses" over a few weeks.

The 90-day pause also applies to the International Trade Administration's (ITA) export promotion
activity -- welcome news in light of recent reporting detailing the unnecessarily close relationship
between Commerce personnel and firearms exporters and importers. Since 2014, Commerce has worked directly with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and other gun industry mainstays to court foreign buyers of U.S. weapons. Reports indicate that Commerce officials and staff coordinate closely with the domestic gun industry to attract potential foreign customers to the annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show), which generates 75 percent of the NSSF's revenue.One foreign gun importer noted, "The assistance we get from the Commerce Department, especially at SHOT Show, is invaluable … You really can't be in this business without that help." Commerce classifies information about their work related to SHOT Show as "confidential commercial information," meaning the public has little to no idea how much staff time and taxpayer dollars the Department spends on SHOT Show-related activities each year. Despite the Biden Administration's efforts to stem the tide of gun violence at home, Commerce continues to actively participate in firearms export promotion activities like the SHOT Show.

Clearly, a brief 90-day pause in export license approvals and promotion is insufficient to address the
breadth of the problem. Before it ends this pause, Commerce must make significant changes to its export license approval and monitoring policies. These changes include:
1. Recognizing in a formal policy statement that firearms are the only lethal weapons on the
Commerce Control List and asserting that it is a foreign policy interest of the U.S. to
restrain the global proliferation of these weapons.
2. Publicly posting requirements for end-use certification of exported semi-automatic
firearms and committing to pre- and post-shipment transparency and end-use monitoring.
The most recent public information from Commerce on firearms exports end-use
monitoring is outdated, dating back to January 2020 (with slight updates in May 2021).
3. Adding "crime control" to the list of criteria systematically considered by Commerce
prior to approving a firearms export license. The "crime control" factor specifically accounts for the potential for exported firearms (including semiautomatic pistols
equipping police forces) to be used by security forces for human rights violations and
abuses.
4. Taking advantage of existing, comprehensive sources (such as the State Department's
International Vetting and Security Tracking-cloud system) when reviewing license
applications to identify problematic proposed end users.
5. Encouraging countries of particular concern to fully participate in the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF's) eTrace system to better track the use of U.S.-
sourced firearms in criminal activity and facilitating programs to develop such capacities
in countries of concern.
6. Reducing export license validity from four years to one year, particularly for destinations
of concern.
7. Systematically reviewing licenses approved for export to countries importing very high
numbers of firearms and confirming the identities of end users of these weapons. If the
Department cannot verify the end user, it should consider revoking or amending the
licenses.
8. Capping exports of firearms to civilian buyers, and aggressively enforcing policies
prohibiting transfers to security forces with an elevated risk of human rights abuse.
9. Capping the number of exported firearms that can be covered by any single export
license, particularly for destinations of concern, and distinguishing between firearms
destined for security forces of trusted allies versus civilians or commercial retailers.
10. Ending Commerce's involvement in the SHOT Show and other firearms export
promotion activities that can lead to, and even enable, gun violence and death abroad.
11. Using its authority under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to issue all policy
changes stemming from the review process as final rules to ensure prompt
implementation.
The Commerce Department's decision to pause new firearm export approvals and promotion is welcome news. We urge the Commerce Department to implement our recommendations in its review of its export policies, and if necessary, to extend the temporary pause as needed to reconsider its export policies as rigorously as possible. Additionally, we request responses to the following questions no later than February 7, 2024:
1. Has Commerce consulted with external non-industry stakeholders (e.g., academics,
survivors of gun violence) as part of its policy review?
2. Will Commerce release the findings of its review publicly, including which specific
policies will be changed and how? If not, why not?
3. How long does Commerce anticipate implementing the policy changes stemming from its
review this implementation process will take?
4. How will Commerce engage with U.S. gun exporters to apprise them of the policy
review's findings and any resulting changes exporters will need to make to their pending
or future applications?
Thank you for your attention to this important matter

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