New Trump Arms Rules Loosen Oversight of Foreign Gun Sales

Republicans are consistent on following the orders of the gun and ammunition lobby.  In early March 2020, the Trump administration loosened rules around small arms exports.

The Trump administration has implemented new export rules for American small arms, ammunition, and gun parts — a major victory for the American gun industry, which has lobbied for the change for more than a decade.

The new rules, which went into effect on March 9, shift oversight of small arms exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department. The arrangement dramatically reduces restrictions on who can sell weapons internationally and guts oversight of where guns end up. It also eliminates a requirement to notify Congress of gun deals totaling more than $1 million.

In short, there is now greatly reduced restrictions on who can sell guns internationally and Republicans gutted the monitoring of where those weapons end up.

In February of last year [2019], the Trump administration revived the proposal, despite objections from Senate Democrats.  

Under the old rules, any American company wishing to export firearms needed first to register with the State Department, which meant disclosing foreign business ownerships and past indictments. Once registered, exporters had to apply for a license for each sale. The department screened license applications against internal watch lists to prevent arms deals with dangerous or unethical trade partners. Finally, the State Department performed end-user checks — essentially, surprise verifications to confirm that sold weapons wound up where intended.

The new rules scrap registration and dramatically dial back the government’s end-use monitoring efforts. They also include no requirement that the State Department share its watchlists with the Commerce Department.

....these changes loosen a regulatory apparatus that was inadequate to begin with.

Source: https://www.thetrace.org/rounds/new-trump-arms-rules-loosen-oversight-of-foreign-gun-sales/