By Laura DeKoven Waxman
July 18, 2011

Deputy Attorney General James Cole announced July 11 that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will immediately begin requiring licensed firearms dealers in in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines to the same person within a five-day period.

In a prepared statement, Cole said that, “The international expansion and increased violence of transnational criminal networks pose a significant threat to the United States,” and that “federal, state and foreign law enforcement agencies have determined that certain types of semi-automatic rifles – greater than .22 caliber and with the ability to accept a detachable magazine – are highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest Border.”

Cole continued that “this new reporting measure – tailored to focus only on multiple sales of these types of rifles to the same person within a five-day period – will improve the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to detect and disrupt the illegal weapons trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations.”

Efforts to revoke ATF’s authority to impose this requirement have already begun in Congress.