Trump rescinds Biden firearm export controls for 36 ‘high risk’ countries
The Trump administration has rescinded Biden-era export restrictions on civilian firearms, eliminating a presumption of denial for sales to 36 ‘high-risk’ countries and allowing US gunmakers to compete more freely in overseas markets.
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security said it had withdrawn the April 2024 interim final rule that had imposed ‘onerous export controls on civilian firearms and related ammunition and components’, saying this will allow US firearms manufacturers to compete in overseas markets and ‘create hundreds of millions of dollars per year in export opportunities’.
Under the revised rule, long-barrel shotguns and most optics can be exported without a licence to US allies and ‘certain partners’, while most pistols, rifles, and non-long-barrel shotguns will remain subject to a worldwide export licence requirement.
BIS and interagency partners will continue to screen firearms licence applications to reduce the risk of weapons ‘ending up in the hands of wrongdoers’. Licence application paperwork requirements for firearms will be streamlined and consistent with normal BIS practice.
‘BIS strongly rejects the Biden Administration’s war on the Second Amendment and law-abiding firearms users,’ said Jeffrey Kessler, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. ‘With today’s rule, BIS is restoring common sense to export controls and doing right by America’s proud firearms industry, while also continuing to protect national security.’
The National Shooting Sports Foundation hailed the change, estimating that the Biden export restrictions cost the industry approximately $500 million in lost business annually.
‘The firearm industry is tremendously grateful to the Trump administration and BIS officials for their actions to restore American competitiveness in firearm manufacturing and exports to foreign countries,’ said Lawrence G Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. ‘American firearm manufacturing is the worldwide leader and removing these restrictions will restore access to foreign markets while continuing to maintain adequate export controls to prevent illegal firearm trafficking.’
But representative Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned the policy shift will lead to US-produced firearms more easily finding their way into illicit hands.
‘Countries around the world, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, have called on the US to better control the export of American firearms, which all too often are exploited by gangs and criminal networks to destabilise communities and exacerbate civilian insecurity,’ Meeks said in a statement. ‘The administration’s reduction of oversight checks on such sales does nothing to strengthen national, regional or global security.’
A Government Accountability Office report produced in October 2024 found that 73% of all weapons recovered in crimes by law enforcement in Caribbean nations had come from the United States, many from commercial sales. Caribbean nations account for six of the ten highest murder rates in the world.
The Biden administration’s rule had barred the sale of weapons to individuals in 36 countries the State Department designated as a substantial risk that lawful firearms exports to non-governmental entities would be diverted or misused.
The list included countries blacklisted in the 2024 State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and the 15 September Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries, such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Jamaica.
https://www.nssf.org/articles/nssf-hails-final-rule-rolling-back-biden-era-export-restrictions/
