Washington, D.C. — A new report from the Center for American Progress exposes the impact of Trump administration policies that ushered in a permissive era of U.S. firearms exports, contributing to violence and human rights abuses worldwide.
The Trump administration shifted oversight of firearms exports from the State Department, which has a mandate to protect U.S. national security and advance foreign policy interests, to the Commerce Department, which is responsible for promoting U.S. industry. That shift, backed by the gun lobby, created new challenges in ensuring that firearms transfers do not contravene broader foreign policy goals to advance peace, security, and the protection of rights.
The United States exported 1.3 million semiautomatic pistols after the shift in 2020 through the end of 2023, a 49 percent increase over the previous four-year period. Even more staggering, the United States exported nearly 200,000 semiautomatic—or autoloading—rifles from 2020 to the end of 2023, a 217 percent increase over the previous four-year period.
The top five importers of U.S. semiautomatic pistols in 2023 were Israel, Saudi Arabia, Guatemala, the Philippines, and Thailand—all countries facing political violence or human rights abuses. The report also reveals that gunmen used a U.S. firearm in the 2023 assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, which has not been previously reported.
The Commerce Department published new rules in April with reforms to curb these abuses, requiring exporters to better vet customers and tighten sales to countries deemed high risk for illegal diversion of semiautomatic firearms or human rights abuses. The new rules would also reduce the length of export licenses, allowing more regular opportunity to review and block sales.
While these reforms are a step in the right direction, CAP’s report makes several recommendations, urging the Commerce Department to:
- Include a presumption of denial to applications of export or re-export of any assault weapons for nongovernmental end users.
- Exert more control over members of a new interagency working group reviewing license applications.
- Commit to making more data available on firearms exports more regularly.
- Provide notice to Congress of exports that exceed $1 million.
- Provide clearer guidelines regarding the in-country transfer of firearms exported from the United States
“The government can do more to prevent American weapons from contributing to political instability and human rights violations in other countries,” said Allison McManus, managing director of National Security and International Policy at CAP and co-author of the report. “Ultimately, this task should fall to the State Department, which oversees the export of all other weapons of war. In the meantime, the Commerce Department should strengthen its new policies on firearm exports to more aggressively restrain the export of these weapons abroad. This is critical when it comes to assault weapons that have the potential to cause tremendous harm.”
Read the report: “At Home or Abroad, U.S. Firearms Should Not Fuel Violence, Instability, and Abuse” by Allison Mcmanus and Laura Kilbury
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected].