Two Democratic lawmakers are pushing the Biden administration to strengthen oversight of arms exports to foreign governments, raising alarm about American-made firearms used in gang violence in El Salvador, a mass shooting at a nursery school in Thailand and in Israel against Palestinian civilians.
In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo shared exclusively with The Hill, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) call for tighter oversight and restrictions on the export of assault and small arms firearms.
The letter was sent on July 1, the last day to submit comments for a proposed rule announced by the Department of Commerce in April restricting all small arms exports to non-governmental entities in high-risk countries.
“It would be a mistake for the Commerce Department to finalize a rule that allows U.S. military-style weapons to continue to fuel unnecessary, violent killings around the world,” Warren said in a statement to The Hill.
“Strengthening safeguards for assault weapons exports is a national security priority.”
Warren and Castro criticize the fact that the Biden administration maintains former President Trump’s transfer of authority from the State Department to the Commerce Department for the commercial export of firearms.
While welcoming the introduction of the proposed rule in April, Democrats are calling on the Commerce Department to tighten rules regarding the export of firearms to foreign governments and commit to publicly publishing data on such sales.
“While we continue to support the return of all firearms export controls to the Department of State, we urge the Department of Commerce to incorporate the recommendations in this letter as part of its interim policy review in order to strengthen export controls and end-use checks and to clamp down on unnecessary promotion of the export of weapons used in brutal murders abroad,” they wrote.
In particular, they raise concerns about the Israeli government providing citizens – many who are Israeli settlers in the West Bank – with firearms in a context of increasing violent clashes with Palestinians, particularly since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th.
In December, the Biden administration reportedlystopped the sale of 20,000 US-made riflesto Israel due to concerns about attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank.
A State Department spokesperson told The Hill on Tuesday that the agency is “prohibited from publicly confirming or commenting on details regarding pre-decisional direct commercial defense sales licensing activities.”
“All U.S. arms transfers are subject to rules governing their use, including, as the Secretary said, ‘the imperative of respect for humanitarian law,’” the statement continued.
But lawmakers are calling on the Commerce Department to take additional steps beyond the April rule to implement “adequate oversight of arms transfers to government end users.”
“Without safeguarding and scrutinizing threats of human rights abuses by government end users, the rule functionally allows a ‘free flow of weapons to military and police forces in many countries,’” they said, citing text from a advocacy group seeking to crack down about how US weapons are used in human rights violations by security forces or in the illegal trafficking of weapons purchased by the US in Mexico.
They also raise concerns that the April rule does not comprehensively restrict the sale of firearms to non-governmental actors abroad; or ban the commercial resale of assault weapons outside the U.S.
Additionally, Warren and Castro call for the Commerce Department to commit to releasing firearms export data.
“The public deserves to know whether their administration is approving license approvals and transfers of assault weapons that end up in the hands of malicious actors who threaten U.S. national security and foreign policy interests,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Transparency regarding export approval data and how American firearms are used abroad is one of the key ways the trade can be held accountable.”
Media and think tank investigations into the impact of US firearms sales abroad draw on a number of different data sources to try to understand the scale of such exports.
The Center for American Progress (CAP), citing business data from the US Census Bureau, he said U.S. firearms exports increased “15 percent in volume and 33 percent in value” between 2020 and 2023, illustrating the impact of gun exports when placed under the authority of the Department of Commerce.
“In comparison, exports decreased when we compared the value and volume of the four years prior to 2016 with the following years,” notes the PAC report.
The lawmakers, in their letter, point to violent incidents outside the US where US-made weapons were involved, underlining the seriousness of implementing reforms. They point to an October 2022 shooting at a children’s school in Thailand by a police officer who killed 36 people with a sugarcane machete and a American-made Sig Sauer pistol.
And they raise the example of concerns about human rights violations by security forces in El Salvador and incidents with firearms used in homicides, especially in 2022, as coinciding with an increase in exports of semi-automatic firearms sold in the US.
“We are concerned that the changes do not address key reporting requirements and do not go far enough to prevent assault weapons from ending up in the hands of dangerous actors around the world,” the lawmakers wrote.
“National security must come before trade.”
The Commerce Department told The Hill it has received the letter and will respond through appropriate channels.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
