
To fuel its overseas push, the US firearm industry, through its political allies, has managed to weaken gun-control laws and seed pro-gun advocacy in other countries, particularly in Latin America. With the recent surge in export sales, the numbers are likely to rise. Outside North America, the figure was 37%. A recent federal study found that 11% of guns that had been recovered at crime scenes abroad and traced were legal US exports.


RUNNING WITH RIFLES PRISON BUS CRACK
The transfer of responsibility from State to Commerce, the spokesperson said, "has strengthened enforcement and investigative scrutiny over these exports through the addition of specialized enforcement agents at the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, and increased federal authorities and resources available to crack down on the illicit export of firearms."īecause few crime guns are traced to their origins, it's unclear exactly how many legally exported US firearms wind up with criminals. In February, the administration issued an order to prioritize human rights as a factor in weapons sales. Semiautomatic American-made guns are now pouring into countries ranging from Canada, with its comparatively strict regulations, to Guatemala, where firearms are frequently diverted into the hands of criminals and the government has trampled human rights.Ī spokesperson for Biden's National Security Council said the US reviews firearm export applications to limit illegal trafficking and diversion of firearms. But they've reached new heights since gunmakers in 2020 won a decade-long battle to streamline export approvals. The economic and political forces driving those sales were set in motion after the US assault-weapons ban expired in 2004. With about 400 million civilian firearms owned in the US, companies like Sig are seeking new buyers abroad, and they've found an eager ally: The federal government has helped push international sales of rapid-fire guns to record levels. It was part of a growing number of semiautomatic handguns and rifles exported by American gunmakers and linked to violent crimes. The killer's gun, a Sig Sauer P365 - touted by the company as small enough to easily conceal yet able to hold 13 rounds - had traveled more than 8,000 miles from a factory on New Hampshire's rocky seacoast to Thailand's lush Nong Bua Lamphu province. The rampage, which left a total of 36 dead, ranks as the worst in Thai history and one of the worst in the world.

Panya Kamrab hacked some of his victims to death with a sugar-cane machete and shot others point blank with a pistol, including three local government employees eating lunch outside the school. Last October, a recently fired police officer walked into his stepson's nursery school in the remote northeast of Thailand and, in under 30 minutes, killed 23 children and two teachers.
