From Minnesota to Mexicali: connecting the dots with trafficked firearms.

• Author: Pendle, David H.

STORIES OF MEXICAN drug cartels' bloody and relentless efforts to flood American streets with narcotics have frequented our headlines for well over a decade, but only more recently have the larger dynamics of the trade been widely circulated. While Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) inject drugs into American communities, American criminals often supply the firepower for Mexico's street violence. DTOs use proceeds from their estimated $19-29 billion annual profits (1) to arm their operations. And arm them well. Between 2009 and 2010, 34,000 firearms were seized by Mexican authorities from criminal groups. (2) As a result, Mexico, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, regards trafficked firearms as the number-one threat to its national security. (3)

This threat originates close to home: the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that 87 percent of firearms seized in Mexico and successfully traced led back to the United States, (4) resulting in what Congress has described as an "unfettered access" to American firearms. (5) Although estimates vary, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime places the number of firearms trafficked across the border at 20,000 annually. (6) This access has undoubtedly escalated the violence on both sides of the border, which in Mexico has resulted in 50,000 people killed since 2006, including over 12,000 in 2011 alone. (7)

SOURCES OF TRAFFICKED FIREARHS

The calling card for organized firearms trafficking is generally not the clandestine midnight swap of nameless foreign freight containers at port. Instead, the firearms are often originally purchased in relatively small quantities from licensed and unlicensed gun vendors in all corners of the country, (8) but especially within the Southwest Border states. (9) Of the trafficked firearms recovered in Mexico, 39 percent originated from Texas gun dealers, 20 percent from California, and 10 percent from Arizona. (10)

Gun shows are a significant source abused by traffickers to acquire firearms, as unlicensed sellers are not required to perform federal background checks on prospective buyers. A City of New York undercover investigation at seven gun shows in Ohio, Tennessee, and Nevada revealed that 63 percent of unlicensed vendors sold firearms to investigators who even conceded that they "probably couldn't pass a background check." (11) Perhaps not surprisingly, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) reported that approximately 30 percent of firearms involved in federal trafficking investigations are connected to gun shows. (12)

Traffickers exploit licensed dealers as well, often by using straw purchasers. (13) Straw purchasers are intermediaries who acquire one or more firearms from a licensed firearms dealer on behalf of another person, thus concealing the actual recipient's identity. (14) The ATF has previously reported that "straw purchasing" is the most common method used by traffickers to acquire firearms. (15)

Since 2004, straw purchasers have been able to purchase military-style assault rifles from licensed vendors. (16) In fact, purchasing multiple assault and sniper rifles is in some ways less risky than buying ordinary handguns. Since 1975, federally licensed firearm dealers must report the sale of two or more handguns to one individual within a five day period to the ATF. (17) Only on August 14, 2011, did the ATF implement a rule requiring that such vendors report bulk transactions of certain high-powered "long-guns," and this rule only applies to the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. (18) One would expect that, provided this new rule withstands legal challenges, (19) traffickers will increasingly look to purchase assault rifles north of these Border States.

INDICATORS OF TRAFFICKED FIREARMS

Regardless of the source, it is abundantly clear that thousands of firearms are regularly trafficked across the country and into...