October 24, 2024

Warren, Markey, MA Lawmakers Urge DOJ, ATF To Crack Down on Interstate Gun Trafficking As Gun Violence Surges

According to ATF’s 2024 firearm trafficking report, Massachusetts is among the top-five destination states for guns trafficked across state lines.

Text of Letter (PDF) 

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), along with Representatives Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), and Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) requesting that ATF ramp up its work to mitigate the influx of illegal firearms from other states to Massachusetts.    

The majority of guns recovered from crimes in Massachusetts are trafficked from other states with weaker gun laws. Straw purchasers, people who buy guns on behalf of people who cannot legally purchase guns, and unlicensed individuals often purchase guns in states with weaker gun laws and transport them via highways that have become popular gun trafficking corridors, including the notorious “Iron Pipeline” along Interstate 95. The guns are then resold for profit in states with tighter restrictions on gun purchases, undermining the efficacy of those states’ strong gun laws.

“While Massachusetts suffers one of the highest rates of interstate gun trafficking, this problem is not unique to the Commonwealth. Nationwide, almost one-third of guns recovered in crimes were trafficked from other states,” wrote the lawmakers.

The lawmakers made five key recommendations to the ATF: 

  • Strong implementation of a newly finalized rule that will require more sellers to obtain federal licenses and comply with federal safety requirements that help identify potential traffickers. These requirements include conducting background checks, maintaining inventory records, and reporting when customers purchase two or more handguns within five consecutive business days.

  • Improve inspections of high-risk and noncompliant dealers. The ATF should conduct more frequent follow-up inspections of dealers that sell guns to straw purchasers and those that ignore other indications of trafficking. 

  • Expand reporting requirements for multiple sales of rifles, in addition to revolvers and pistols, and require ATF to keep those reports for at least five years, up from the current requirement of two years. 

  • Increase public access to gun trafficking data to allow researchers, journalists, and policymakers to have access to vital data on interstate gun trafficking and the sources of crime guns. 

  • Ensure more consistent crime gun tracing and increase technical assistance to train local law enforcement on how to do so.  

The lawmakers requested an update of ATF’s efforts to stem the flow of weapons across state lines by November 7, 2024. 

Senator Warren has led efforts to combat the flood of high-powered assault weapons into communities at home and abroad:

  • In September 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Representatives Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) and Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led a letter to the Departments of State (State), Homeland Security (DHS), Commerce (Commerce), and Justice (DOJ), urging them to strengthen steps to prevent the flow of illegal firearms from the United States into Haiti.

  • In August 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren, along with Representatives Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) introduced the Stop Militarizing Our Streets Act of 2024 to stop military-grade assault weapons and ammunition from finding their way onto our streets.

  • In July 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) sent a letter to the Department of Defense calling on them to stop subsidizing the sale of military-grade weapons to civilians.

  • In May 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) sent a letter to United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Katherine Tai writing in support of USTR’s decision to remove the designation of import license requirements for explosives, firearms, and ammunition as trade barriers in the annual National Trade Estimate (NTE) report, while also criticizing the Department of Commerce’s inadequate steps to address assault weapons exports. 

  • In January 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Representatives Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, calling on the Department of Commerce to incorporate a set of recommendations from the lawmakers to strengthen export controls and end-use checks for firearm exports to crack down on the unnecessary export of lethal weapons used in brutal killings abroad. 

  • In December 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) reintroduced the Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act, a comprehensive bill that would implement bold and robust measures including creating a federal gun licensing system, strengthening background checks, banning military-style assault weapons and other lethal accessories, holding the gun industry accountable for wrongdoing, and investing in research and community-based gun violence prevention.

  • In September 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Norma Torres (D-Calif.), and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to Secretary Raimondo, calling on Commerce to publicly release data on its approvals of assault weapons exports and provide a response to questions laid out in their September 2022 letter about Commerce’s troubling increase of assault weapons export approvals.

  • In September 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) led 68 lawmakers in a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to take further executive action to combat gun violence and limit the sale of assault weapons, including to leverage the federal government’s purchasing power to improve public safety. 

  • In October 2022, Senator Elizabeth Warren joined Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in a letter to President Biden calling for the Administration to return oversight of the export of firearms to the Department of State. 

  • In September 2022, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Representatives Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Secretary Raimondo, calling out Commerce for its increased approvals of export licenses for assault weapons and high-capacity magazine exports, and for putting the gun industry profits before national security and human lives. The lawmakers called on Commerce to revise its approach to assault weapons exports and to answer questions about its export license approvals.

  • In July 2022, at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned Alan Estevez, Under Secretary for Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce, about the agency’s lax approach to export controls of military-style assault weapons and called on the Biden administration to fulfill its campaign promise to return assault weapons exports oversight to the State Department.

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