Commerce Issues Guidance on Transfer of Gun Export Controls

The Commerce Department on July 8 issued a guidance on the transfer of gun export controls from the State Department (see 2001170030). The 62-page guidance, which includes more than 100 frequently asked questions, outlines Commerce’s approach to the controls, including licensing exceptions, arms reporting, export clearance requirements, recordkeeping and enforcement. The guidance also defines several “key terms” for exports that it now controls, such as the difference between additive manufacturing and 3D printing.

Commerce said the transfer of export controls will increase enforcement by creating new authorities for Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement agents to investigate illegal firearm exports. The transfer will “not in any way diminish” existing enforcement authorities, including those carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations, the guidance said.

Commerce is involved in litigation with 20 states and Washington, D.C., which were granted by a U.S. district court in Washington state in March a request to temporarily block the transfer of controls over technology and software for 3D printing of guns (see 2003090029). The states argued that the transfer would create a dangerous lack of oversight for a range of weapons and firearms, but Commerce and the State Department disputed that claim (see 2002270014).