Gun Trafficking and the Southwest Border
ATF Enforcement of U.S. Gun Laws
According to DOJ, ATF is the lead federal agency responsible for
stopping the illegal flow of
firearms, or gun trafficking, from the United States to Mexico,
given the bureau’s statutory
mission and authority.48 ATF has developed a nationwide strategy to
reduce firearms trafficking
and violent crime by preventing convicted felons, drug traffickers,
and juvenile gang members
from acquiring firearms from gun traffickers. These criminals often
acquire firearms from a
person who otherwise is not prohibited to possess a firearms through
straw purchases or by
buying a firearm from a corrupt dealer who sells firearms
off-the-books in an attempt to escape
federal regulation.
Although there is no statutory definition for “gun trafficking” in
the GCA, it essentially entails
the movement or diversion of firearms from legal to illegal
markets.49 Unlike other forms of
contraband, almost all illegal firearms used criminally in the
United States were diverted at some
point from legal channels of commerce.50 ATF works to reduce
firearms-related crime with two
approaches, industry regulation and criminal investigation.
ATF Compliance Inspections of Licensed Gun Dealers
ATF regulates the U.S. firearms industry by inspecting federal
firearms licensees (FFLs), or
licensed gun dealers, to monitor their compliance with the GCA and
NFA, and to prevent the
diversion of firearms from legal to illegal channels of commerce.
Despite its crime-fighting
mission, ATF’s business relationships with the firearms industry and
larger gun-owning
community have been a perennial source of tension, which from
time-to-time has been the subject
of congressional oversight.51 Nevertheless, under current law, ATF
Special Agents (SAs)52 and
Industry Operations Investigators (IOIs)53 are authorized to inspect
or examine the inventory and
records of an FFL without search warrants under three scenarios:54
• in the course of a reasonable inquiry during the course of a
criminal investigation
of a person or persons other than the FFL;
• to ensure compliance with the record keeping requirements of the
GCA – not
more than once during any twelve-month period, or at any time with
respect to
records relating to a firearm involved in a criminal investigation
that is traced to
the licensee; or
• when such an inspection or examination is required for determining
the
disposition of one or more firearms in the course of a criminal
investigation.
By inspecting the firearms transfer records that FFLs are required
by law to maintain, ATF SAs
and IOIs are able to trace crime guns from their domestic
manufacturer or importer to the first
retail dealer that sold those firearms to persons in the general
public, generating vital leads in
homicide and other criminal investigations. In addition, by
inspecting those records, ATF
investigators sometimes discover evidence of corrupt FFLs dealing in
firearms “off the books,”
straw purchases, and other patterns of illegal behavior.
In July 2004, the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported on
ATF inspections of FFLs.
Among other things, the OIG reported that ATF inspected the
operations of 4.5% of the 104,000
FFLs in FY2002.55 Since then, according to ATF, 10,106 firearms
compliance inspections were
conducted in FY2007, covering about 9.3% of the nearly 109,000 FFLs
in that fiscal year;56 and
11,169 firearms compliance inspections were conducted in FY2008,
covering nearly 10% of the
111,600 FFLs in that fiscal year.57
In its FY2010 budget submission to Congress, ATF has reported that
there are about 113,000
FFLs nationwide, but nearly half of them (53,472) are licensed
collectors.58 Those collectors are
not authorized to be “engaged in the business” of dealing
firearms,59 but they are authorized to
engage in limited interstate firearms transfers of “curios and
relics”60 without engaging the
services of an FFL to facilitate such transfers and related
background checks.
Straw Purchases and the Ant Run
A “straw purchase” occurs when a person, who is otherwise eligible
to purchase a firearm,
purchases a firearm from a federally licensed dealer for another
person, who is either prohibited
from possessing a firearm or does not want a paper trail linking him
to the purchased firearm.
Routine, small-scale smuggling of guns across the border often
involves a series of straw
purchases, during which guns are purchased from FFLs in border
states and then sold to a middle
man, who then smuggles the guns across the border. Repeated trips
across the border of one to
three guns, referred to in border parlance as the ant (hormiga) run,
is a common way firearms are
smuggled into Mexico.61 In the United States, straw purchases are
illegal under the GCA.62 When
a person buys a firearm from an FFL, the buyer and the FFL are
required to fill out ATF Form
4473. The FFL is required to verify the purchaser’s name, address,
date of birth, and other
information by examining a state-issued piece of identification,
most often a driver’s license. If
the purchaser or dealer falsifies any information on the Form 4473,
it is a federal offense
punishable by no more than 10 years’ imprisonment and/or a fine.63
It is also illegal for the gun
trafficker who sponsored the straw purchase, because it is a federal
offense for any person to aid,
abet, counsel, command, or solicit a criminal act;64 or engage in a
conspiracy to defraud the
United States. It is also illegal to smuggle firearms out of the
United States.65
Multiple Handgun Sales Reports
In 1986, as part of the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act,66 Congress
amended the GCA to require
FFLs to report to the Attorney General (AG) whenever they
transferred more than one handgun to
any nonlicensee within five consecutive business days.67 In 1993, as
part of the Brady Handgun
Violence Prevention Act,68 Congress amended the GCA to require that
FFLs also forward this
information to the state police or to the local law enforcement
agency that has jurisdiction in the
area where the transfer occurred. However, except for information
pertaining to persons
prohibited from possessing firearms, federal law prohibits state or
local law enforcement agencies
from disclosing those records to any person or entity, and requires
those records be destroyed
within 20 days of receipt so that such records cannot be used as a
registry of firearms or firearms
owners. At the end of every six-month period, the state or local law
enforcement agency is
required to certify to the AG that the record nondisclosure and
destruction requirements were
complied with. These provisions were enacted because when multiple
handguns are purchased in
states with less strict firearm laws and then sold in states with
stricter firearm laws, this is often
an indicator of interstate firearms trafficking, that is the
diversion of firearms from legal to illegal
markets.
Gun Shows and Private Firearm Transfers
Private, intrastate firearm transfers are legal in some states at
gun shows and flea markets. A
person who is not “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms may
transfer firearms to another
person as long as he does not do so knowingly to a prohibited
person, and as long as he does not
knowingly transfer a handgun to a person who is not a resident of
the state in which the transfer
occurs.69 It is notable that firearms acquired through private
transfers, particularly multiple
private transfers, are much more difficult to trace. Consequently,
there is likely to be a premium
for such firearms in illegal markets on both sides of the border, as
there would also be for some
stolen firearms, because there are no paper trails for these
firearms. Southwest border states in
which private transfers at gun shows are legal include Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona, and
California, although gun shows and all private firearm transfers are
more strictly regulated in
California.70
Semiautomatic Assault Weapons
Certain semiautomatic firearms that are often, but not always, based
on military designs are very
popular with Mexican drug traffickers.71 Depending on their
configuration, some of these
firearms formerly qualified by definition as “semiautomatic assault
weapons” under an expired
provision of federal law. In 1994, Congress banned for 10 years the
possession, transfer, or
further domestic manufacture of semiautomatic assault weapons (SAWs)
and large capacity
ammunition feeding devices (LCAFDs) that hold more than 10 rounds
that were not legally
owned or available prior to the date of enactment (September 13,
1994). The SAW-LCAFD ban
expired on September 13, 2004.
The SAW ban statute classified a semiautomatic rifle as an assault
weapon if it was able to accept
a detachable magazine and included two or more of the following five
characteristics: (1) a
folding or telescoping stock, (2) a pistol grip, (3) a bayonet
mount, (4) a muzzle flash suppressor
or threaded barrel capable of accepting such a suppressor, or (5) a
grenade launcher.72 There were
similar definitions for pistols and shotguns that were classified as
semiautomatic assault
weapons.73 Semiautomatic assault weapons that were legally owned
prior to the ban were not
restricted and remained available for transfer under applicable
federal and state laws.
Opponents of the ban argue that the statutorily defined
characteristics of a semiautomatic assault
weapon were largely cosmetic, and that these weapons were
potentially no more lethal than other
semiautomatic firearms that were designed to accept a detachable
magazine and were equal or
superior in terms of ballistics and other performance
characteristics. Proponents of the ban argue
that semiautomatic military-style firearms, particularly those
capable of accepting large capacity
ammunition feeding devices, have no place in the civilian gun stock.
During and following World War II, assault rifles were developed to
provide a lighter infantry
weapon that could fire more rounds, more rapidly. To increase
capacity of fire, detachable, self-feeding
magazines were developed. These rifles were usually designed to be
fired in fully
automatic mode, meaning that once the trigger is pulled, the weapon
continues to fire rapidly
until all the rounds in the magazine are expended, or the trigger is
released. Often these rifles
were also designed with a “select fire” feature that allowed them to
be fired in short bursts (e.g.,
three rounds per pull of the trigger), or in semiautomatic mode
(i.e., one round per pull of the
trigger), as well as in fully automatic mode. Semiautomatic firearms
by comparison, including
semiautomatic assault weapons, fire one round per pull of the
trigger.
Following the 1994 Semiautomatic Assault Weapons Ban, manufacturers
changed the design of
many firearms so that post-ban models did not include the requisite
number of characteristics that
would have qualified those firearms as “semiautomatic assault
weapons.” These measures
arguably undercut the ban, as post-ban models included the two
hallmarks of an “assault rifle,”
the detachable magazine and pistol grip.
Fully Automatic Machineguns
In the United States, fully automatic machine guns are strictly
regulated under the NFA, which
levies taxes on all aspects of the manufacture, importation, and
distribution of such firearms. It is
a felony to receive, possess, or transfer an unregistered NFA
firearm.74 Such offenses are
punishable by a fine of up to $250,000, imprisonment for up to 10
years, and forfeiture of the
firearm and any vessel, vehicle, or aircraft used to conceal or
convey the firearm.75 It is a federal
offense to convert a semiautomatic firearm to “full-auto” without
proper authorization from the
Attorney General. Parts kits to convert semiautomatic weapons to
fully automatic are available on
the U.S. civilian gun market, but these kits are considered machine
guns in most instances and are
also strictly regulated. In other instances, however, the individual
parts in these kits may not be
regulated. 76
Project Gunrunner: ATF Efforts to Suppress Southwest Border Gun
Trafficking
ATF has increased its efforts in recent years to suppress illegal
gun trafficking across the
Southwest border. As part of these efforts, ATF inspects FFLs to
monitor their compliance with
U.S. gun laws, and to prevent the diversion of firearms from legal
to illegal channels of
commerce. ATF reports that there are around 6,700 FFLs in the United
States operating in the
Southwest border region of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and
California.77 ATF also reports that
Mexican DTOs are increasingly sending enforcers across the border to
hire surrogates (straw
purchasers) who buy several “military-style” firearms at a time from
FFLs. The DTOs also
reportedly favor pistols chambered to accommodate comparatively
large cartridges and
magazines that are capable of piercing through armor vests typically
worn by law enforcement
officers. Less frequently, but no less troubling to law enforcement,
the DTOs have also sought .50
caliber sniper rifles.
Funding for Gunrunner[78]
During FY2006 and FY2007, ATF dedicated approximately 100 special
agents and 25 industry
operations investigators to a Southwest border initiative known as
“Project Gunrunner” to disrupt
the illegal flow of guns from the United States into Mexico. In
FY2007, ATF agents investigated
187 firearms trafficking cases and recommended 465 defendants for
prosecution. 79 By the end of
FY2008, ATF had deployed 146 special agents and 68 industry
operations investigators to the
Southwest border to bolster that initiative at a conservatively
estimated cost of $32.2 million.80
For FY2009, the Administration’s budget request for ATF included a
single increase of $948,000
to fund 12 industry operations investigator positions to bolster
efforts already underway as part of
Gunrunner.81 In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,
Congress has provided
ATF with $10 million to ramp up Gunrunner and $30 million to assist
local law enforcement with
counter-narcotics efforts.82 In the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009
(P.L. 111-8), Congress has
provided ATF with a FY2009 budget of $1.054 billion, including
another $5 million for
Gunrunner.83
In addition, in the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009 (P.L.
111-32), Congress appropriated
$14 million for ATF. This amount includes (1) $4 million to upgrade
and share ballistic imaging
technology with the Government of Mexico, and (2) $6 million for
other ongoing efforts focused
on stemming illegal gun trafficking to Mexico under Project
Gunrunner.84
The ATF FY2010 budget request85 includes $18 million and 92
permanent positions (including 34
agents) to support Project Gunrunner. 86 The House-passed FY2010
Commerce, Justice, Science,
and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill (H.R. 2847) would
provide ATF with $1.106
billion, including the requested $18 million increase for Gunrunner.
According to House report
language, such an increase would bring total funding for Southwest
border firearms trafficking to
$59.9 million, but this amount includes one-time, stimulus funding
of $10 million provided in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for FY2008.87 The
Senate-reported CJS
appropriations bill (also H.R. 2847) would provide ATF with $1.121
billion for ATF, including the
requested amount for Gunrunner. According to Senate report language,
the Senate committee
recommendation would bring total funding for Southwest border
firearms trafficking to $61
million.88
ATF Firearms Tracing for Mexican Authorities
ATF also maintains a foreign attaché in Mexico City to administer an
Electronic Trace
Submission System (ETSS), also known as the eTrace program, for
Mexican law enforcement
authorities. Although several sets of trace data have been released
by ATF, the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) has provided the most comprehensive
analysis of ATF trace data.
Nevertheless, trace data reported to CRS by ATF is also discussed
below, as each set of trace data
provides distinct insights into Southwest border firearms
trafficking.
ATF Briefing for CRS, May 18, 2008
From FY2005 through FY2007, ATF traced just over 11,700 firearms
recovered by Mexican
authorities. Although only a fraction of recovered firearms were
submitted for tracing,
approximately 90% of those firearms were found to have originated in
the United States.89 Of
those traced firearms, nearly 75% were reported to be handguns and
25% long guns. At that time
there was no public information about the number of those handguns
and long guns that were
possibly “semiautomatic assault weapons.” However, 25 machine guns
were reportedly
confiscated, of which six were traced back to U.S. military
inventories.90 In addition, reports
indicate that in at least 10 instances, Mexican authorities
recovered U.S. manufactured 66
millimeter anti-tank weapons from Mexican DTOs.91
Caution should be exercised when drawing conclusions from ATF crime
gun trace data. Although
it is valid to say that 90% of traced firearms originated in the
United States, it would be invalid to
conclude that 90% of all guns used in crime in Mexico originated in
the United States. Crime gun
trace data are useful measurements of crime gun trends; however, the
issues of consistent,
random, and unbiased data collection have not been adequately
addressed through comprehensive
tracing and other controls. Hence, it is often not possible to test
for statistical significance.
Nevertheless, even though a statistically valid percent estimate of
US-sourced firearms cannot be
made based on trace data, criminal investigations have documented
that there is great demand for
certain firearms that are available in normal (non-military)
commercial channels in the United
States and that those firearms have been illegally trafficked to
Mexico in large numbers.
ATF Briefing for CRS, April 16, 2009
In January 2008, ATF announced that e-Trace technology would be
deployed to nine additional
U.S. consulates in Mexico (Merida, Juarez, Monterrey, Nogales,
Hermosillo, Guadalajara,
Tijuana, Matamoros, and Nueva Laredo).92 The number of traces
performed by ATF for Mexican
authorities for FY2008 increased markedly from previous years.
During FY2008, ATF reportedly
traced 7,743 firearms recovered by Mexican authorities and, of those
firearms:
• 63.5% were made in the United States;
• 29.5% were made outside of the United States, but subsequently
imported; and
• 7% were made outside of the United States and there was no
indication that they
had been imported into the United States before turning up in
Mexico.93
Some of those traces were instrumental in developing investigative
leads in homicide and gun
trafficking cases.94 As described below, however, GAO has reported a
different number of total
traces for FY2008 (7,200), and for more years, FY2004 through
FY2008, than was previously
reported by ATF to CRS.
GAO Report on Firearms Trafficking and Mexico
In June 2009, GAO released a report on firearms trafficking and U.S.
efforts to combat the flow
of illegal firearms to Mexico that included an analysis of ATF trace
data for FY2004 through
FY2008.95 GAO reported that 23,159 firearms were submitted by
Mexican authorities to the ATF
for tracing during those years.96 Of those firearms, 20,060 or 86.6%
were successfully traced back
to the United States.97 For the last three years (FY2006 through
FY2008), over 90% of firearms
recovered in Mexico and traced by ATF were found to have come from
the United States.98 Of
those firearms, 68% were manufactured in the United States and 19%
were manufactured abroad
and imported into the United States.99 About 70% of traced firearms
were found to have come
from Texas (39%), California (20%), and Arizona (10%).
It is notable, however, that only a fraction of the firearms
recovered by Mexican authorities have
been traced. In FY2008, for example, information on about 7,200 of
the nearly 30,000 firearms
recovered by the Mexican Attorney General’s office were submitted to
ATF for tracing, because
of bureaucratic obstacles and lack of resources.100 Notwithstanding
such limitations, about 25%
of firearms recovered in Mexico in FY2008 and traced back to the
United States were
semiautomatic variants of the AK-47 and AR-15 rifles according to
GAO.101
From FY2004 through FY2008, 70 machine guns were submitted for
tracing, or .30% of the total
number of firearms submissions (23,159), and one of these
machineguns was traced back to the
Mexican government.102 While GAO did not report how many of these
machine guns were traced
back to the U.S. military inventories, it was reported that over
these years 160 firearms of all
types, or .70% of the total, had been traced back to those
inventories. Nevertheless, according to
U.S. officials interviewed by GAO, “there have not been any
indications of significant trafficking
in firearms from U.S. military personnel or U.S. military
arsenals.”103
GAO recommended that the U.S. Attorney General direct the ATF
Director to regularly update
ATF’s reporting on aggregate firearms trafficking data and trends,
and that the U.S. Attorney
General and Secretary of Homeland Security ensure the systematic
gathering and reporting of
data related to results of efforts to combat firearms trafficking,
including related firearms seizures,
investigations and prosecutions.104
Merida and Appropriations Authorizations for ATF
In the 110th Congress, the House passed H.R. 6028, the Mérida
Initiative to Combat Illicit
Narcotics and Reduce Organized Crime Authorization Act of 2008 on
June 10, 2008.105 This bill
would have authorized a total of $73.5 million over three years,
FY2008-FY2010, to increase the
number of ATF positions dedicated to Project Gunrunner ($45 million)
and assign ATF agents to
Mexico ($28.5 million). The Senate, however, took no action on this
bill. Senator Jeff Bingaman
introduced the Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act of 2008 (S.
2867), a bill that also
included authorizations for increased ATF resources. Representatives
Henry Cuellar and Ciro
Rodriguez introduced similar bills (H.R. 5863 and H.R. 5869).
In the 111th Congress, Senator Bingaman and Representative Rodriguez
have reintroduced their
Southwest Border Violence Reduction bills (S. 205/H.R. 495).
Representative Rodriguez has also
introduced the Border Reinforcement and Violence Reduction Act of
2009 (H.R. 1448), a bill that
would authorize the appropriations of $15 million for each year,
FY2010 and FY2011, for Project
Gunrunner. In addition, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee introduced
the Border Security,
Cooperation, and Act Now Drug Prevention Act (H.R. 1900), a bill
that would authorize the
Attorney General to deploy additional federal agents, including ATF
agents, to states in the event
that a governor should declare an “international border security
emergency.”
Endnotes
48 U.S. Department of Justice, Statement of David
Ogden, Deputy Attorney General, before the United States Senate
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, “Southern
Border Violence: Homeland Security Threats,
Vulnerabilities, and Responsibilities,” March 25, 2009, p.11.
49 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Project Gunrunner: The
Southwest Border Initiative, ATF P 3317.6, March 2009, available at
http://www.atf.gov/pub/fire-explo_pub/p3317_6rev2.pdf.
50 Greg Ridgeway, Glenn L. Pierce, and Anthony A.
Braga, et al., Strategies for Disrupting Illegal Firearms Markets:
A Case Study of Los Angeles, RAND Corporation, 2008, p. 1.
51 For example, in the 109th Congress, the House
Judiciary Crime subcommittee held two oversight hearings examining
ATF firearms enforcement operations at guns shows in Richmond,
Virginia, in 2005. ATF agents reportedly provided
state and local law enforcement officers with confidential
information from background check forms (ATF Form
4473s), so that officers could perform residency checks on persons
who had otherwise legally purchased firearms at
those gun shows. Questions were also raised as to whether ATF agents
had profiled gun purchasers at those gun shows
on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender. See U.S. Congress,
House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary,
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Oversight
Hearing on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Parts I & II: Gun Show Enforcement,
February 15 and 28, 2006. Also see
Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, The Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’
Investigative Operations at Gun Shows, I-2007-007, June 2007.
52 For FY2009, Congress has provided ATF with funding
for 2,504 SAs.
53 For FY2009, Congress has provided ATF with funding
for 789 IOIs.
54 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(1)(B).
55 U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the
Inspector General, Inspections of Firearms Dealers by the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Report Number I-2004-005,
(July 2004), p. xi.
56 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Congressional Budget
Submission, Fiscal Year 2008, (February 2007), p. 29.
57 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Congressional Budget
Submission, Fiscal Year 2010, May 2009, p. 5.
58 Ibid.
59 A person is “engaged in the business” as a
firearms dealer if he devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing
in
firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal
objective of livelihood and profit through repetitive
purchase and resale of firearms. The term does not apply to a person
who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or
purchase of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or
hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal
collection of firearms. 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(21).
60 See 27 CFR § 478.11 for the definition of “curios
and relics,” which generally include firearms that are 50 years old,
of museum interest, or derive a substantial amount of their value
from the fact that they are novel, rare, bizarre, or
because they are associated with some historical figure, period, or
event. For a list of “curios and relics,” go to
http://www.atf.gov/firearms/curios/index.htm.
61 Ibid.
62 18 U.S.C. § 921 et seq.
63 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6); 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(2).
64 18 U.S.C. § 2.
65 18 U.S.C. § 554. Depending on the type of firearm,
it is also a violation of either the Arms Export Control Act (AECA;
22 U.S.C. § 2778 et seq.) or the Export Administration Act of 1979 (EAA;
50 U.S.C. app. §§ 2401-2420) to
transport a handgun, rifle, or shotgun across the border into Mexico
without proper authorization of the U.S.
government.
66 P.L. 99-308, § 103, May 19, 1986, 100 Stat. 453.
67 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(3).
68 P.L. 103-159, § 201, November 30, 1993, 107 Stat.
1544.
69 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(5).
70 See Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence website
on state gun laws,
http://www.stategunlaws.org/.
71 Tobar, “Guns Flow Easily Into Mexico From The
U.S.,” Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2006, p. A1.
72 Formerly codified at 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(30)(B).
73 Formerly codified at 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(30)(C) and
(D).
74 26 U.S.C §§ 5861(d) and (j).
75 26 U.S.C § 5872; 49 U.S.C §§ 781-788.
76 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF National Firearms Act
Handbook, ATF E-Publication 5329.8, June 2007, pp. 11-14.
77 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Firearms
Trafficking: U.S. Efforts to Combat Arms Trafficking to Mexico
Face Planning and Coordination Challenges, GAO-09-709, June 2009, p.
20.
78 For further information, see CRS Report RL34514,
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(ATF): Budget and Operations, by William J. Krouse.
79 Statement of William Hoover, Assistant Director
for Field Operations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, before the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere,
Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of
Representatives, concerning “U.S. Obligations under the Merida
Initiative,” February 7, 2008.
80 CRS conversation with the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Office of Legislative Affairs,
February 18, 2009.
81 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Congressional Budget
Submission, Fiscal Year 2009 (Feb. 2008), Exhibit C – Program
Increases/Offsets by Decision Unit.
82 P.L. 111-5; 123 Stat 115 (2009).
83 P.L. 111-8; 123 Stat 524 (2009).
84 This supplemental funding brings total enacted
FY2009 funding for ATF to $1.068 billion.
85 The ATF FY2010 budget request includes $1.121
billion for ATF, or a proposed 6.4% increase compared to the
FY2008 enacted appropriation.
86 U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Management
Division, FY2010 Budget and Performance Summary, (May 2009),
p. 139. Available at
http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/2010summary/.
87 U.S. Congress, House Committee on Appropriations,
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related
Agencies, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
Appropriations Bill, 2010, To accompany H.R. 2847,
111th Cong., 1st sess., June 12, 2009, H.Rept. 111-149, p. 66.
88 U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Appropriations,
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related
Agencies Appropriations, Departments of Commerce and Justice, and
Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations
Bill, 2010, 111th Cong., 2nd sess., June 25, 2009, S.Rept. 111-34,
p. 68.
89 ATF briefing provided to CRS on May 5, 2008.
90 Statement of William Hoover, Assistant Director
for Field Operations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on
Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on the Western
Hemisphere, February 7, 2008.
91 It is likely, however, that these weapons were
acquired from sources in Central America, where they were originally
sold to the Honduran, El Salvadoran, and Nicaraguan militaries and
have since entered the black market. CRS
conversation with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, Office of Legislative Affairs, on February
19, 2009.
92 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, Office of Public Affairs, “ATF Expands Efforts to Combat
Illegal Flow of Firearms to Mexico,” Jan. 16, 2008.
93 ATF briefing provided to CRS on April 16, 2009.
94 Ibid.
95 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Firearms
Trafficking: U.S. Efforts to Combat Arms Trafficking to Mexico
Face Planning and Coordination Challenges, GAO-09-709, June 2009, 83
pp.
96 Ibid., p. 18.
97 Ibid., p. 15.
98 Ibid.
99 Ibid., p. 16.
100 Ibid.
101 Ibid., p. 17.
102 Ibid., pp. 18-19.
103 Ibid., p. 19.
104 Ibid., p. 59.
105 For further information, see CRS Report R40135,
Mérida Initiative for Mexico and Central America: Funding and
Policy Issues, by Clare Ribando Seelke and June S. Beittel.
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