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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:25 am
Time: 12:25 am
Results for gun enforcement
1 results foundAuthor: Parsons, Chelsea Title: Beyond Our Borders: How Weak U.S. Gun Laws Contribute to Violent Crime Abroad Summary: From the earliest days of his presidential campaign, a constant refrain from Donald Trump has been the need to protect the United States from foreign threats, particularly violent crime that he falsely asserts is committed at high rates by immigrants to this country. The Trump administration's protectionist, isolationist, nativist, and racist immigration policy is founded on the scurrilous notion that the United States needs to close the borders and restrict immigration to the country as a way to protect against the entry of violent crime. However, often overlooked in this debate is the degree to which exportation of violence goes in the other direction-that is to say, from the United States to other countries-and, in particular, the substantial U.S. role in providing guns that are used in lethal violence in other nations. From 2014 to 2016, across 15 countries in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, 50,133 guns that originated in the United States were recovered as part of criminal investigations. Put another way, during this span, U.S.-sourced guns were used to commit crimes in nearby countries approximately once every 31 minutes. Certainly, many of these U.S.-sourced crime guns were legally exported and were not diverted for criminal use until they crossed the border. The United States is a major manufacturer and a leading exporter of firearms, legally exporting an average of 298,000 guns each year. However, many of the same gaps and weaknesses in U.S. gun laws that contribute to illegal gun trafficking domestically likewise contribute to the illegal trafficking of guns from the United States to nearby nations. This report discusses the scope of the problem of U.S. guns being trafficked abroad and used in the commission of violent crimes in other nations. For example, in 2015, a trafficking ring bought more than 100 guns via straw purchases in the Rio Grande Valley of the United States and smuggled them to Mexico. At least 14 of these firearms were recovered in Mexico. In addition, this report identifies a number of policy solutions that would help to reduce the flow of crime guns abroad and begin to minimize the U.S. role in arming lethal violence in nearby countries. These recommendations include: Instituting universal background checks for gun purchases; Making gun trafficking and straw purchasing federal crimes; Requiring the reporting of multiple sales of long guns; Increasing access to international gun trafficking data; Rejecting efforts that weaken firearm export oversight. The United States has a moral obligation to mitigate its role in arming lethal violence abroad. While there are many factors unique to each nation that affect rates of violent crime, there is more the United States could do to reduce the risks posed by U.S.-sourced guns that cross the border and are used in crime in nearby countries. Details: Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2018. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 6, 2018 at: https://cdn.americanprogress.org/content/uploads/2018/01/31115010/012918_BeyondOurBorders-report-51.pdf Year: 2018 Country: International URL: https://cdn.americanprogress.org/content/uploads/2018/01/31115010/012918_BeyondOurBorders-report-51.pdf Shelf Number: 148995 Keywords: Gun ControlGun EnforcementGun PolicyGun TraffickingGun ViolenceGun-Related ViolenceTrafficking in Weapons |