BIS Still Months Away From Addressing Firearm Licensing Pause, Trade Group Says

The Bureau of Industry and Security remains months away from resolving a temporary pause in new firearm export licenses that was supposed to expire in January, the National Shooting Sports Foundation said this week.

“BIS is no closer to ending this 90-day pause than they were 90 days ago," the group said, "and it is NSSF’s understanding that we won’t see anything for another two months."

The foundation, which refers to itself as a trade association and represents gunmakers and exporters, has criticized BIS for not telling the gun industry before it announced the pause in October, placing a 90-day suspension on new licenses for certain firearms, components and ammunition to nongovernmental end-users worldwide, apart from Ukraine, Israel or a nation listed in Country Group A:1 of the Commerce Country List (see 2310300043 and 2310270068).

The NSSF noted that the 90-day pause began “over 160 days ago” and said BIS has “ignored” questions and letters from Republican lawmakers asking the agency to reverse the pause (see 2402260045, 2402150070 and 2312270043).

“The Biden administration, its Commerce Department and BIS have ignored these calls because they know the truth. There’s no reason for the export ‘pause.’ It’s a charade. It’s an unjustified attack on the firearm industry because President [Joe] Biden thinks U.S. firearm manufacturers are ‘the enemy,’ not those who attack America,” NSSF said. “The BIS export pause is a nothingburger.”

The group said a recently updated guidance from BIS -- its “Don’t Let this HAPPEN TO YOU!” document -- backs up its claims that the pause was unjustified. The guidance, updated in March with new summaries and case examples of recent export control investigations (see 2403290018), didn’t include any new cases of licensed firearm exporters violating export controls.

The document highlighted about 20 cases involving illegal firearm or gun parts shipments, but “not a single one of those cases of illegal smuggling was the result of any licensed U.S. exporter,” NSSF said. “There are no examples of misconduct by any legitimate firearm businesses.”

A BIS spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. The agency also didn’t comment on a draft final rule that surfaced in December, which outlined potential new gun export restrictions purported to be under consideration by BIS (see 2312260039).

Export Compliance Daily in November reported that BIS had quietly stopped approving new licenses for firearms exports to Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala before publicly announcing the broader suspension in October for dozens of other countries (see 2311200009).