BIS Reverses Biden-Era Firearms Export Control Rule
The Bureau of Industry and Security is rolling back a Biden-era interim final rule that increased restrictions on firearms exports, the agency said in a final rule effective Sept. 30. BIS said it decided that the rule should be “rescinded in its entirety” after hearing from U.S. firearms manufacturers that the controls “would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars per year in lost sales.”
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The original rule, released in April 2024, created a presumption of denial license review policy for firearms exports to 36 countries in which the Biden administration said there was a “substantial risk” of diversion or misuse, and it also reduced the duration of most firearms export licenses from four years to one, among other changes (see 2404260054).
BIS said it’s revoking the revisions made by the rule “with the only exception being to maintain new Export Control Classification Numbers.” The agency also is revising the Export Administration Regulations to remove a congressional notification requirement for certain semi-automatic firearms license applications.
“By restoring export controls on firearms to the state they were in at the end of the first Trump administration, BIS is advancing the administration’s commitment to reducing regulatory burdens on industry and law-abiding firearms owners,” BIS said.
BIS Undersecretary Jeffrey Kessler said the Biden-era rule was a “war on the Second Amendment and law-abiding firearms users.” He said the agency “is restoring common sense to export controls and doing right by America’s proud firearms industry, while also continuing to protect national security.”
Export Compliance Daily reported in May that the Trump administration planned to rescind the rule (see 2505290012).
BIS said the announcement will mean exports of most pistols, rifles and non-long-barrel shotguns will remain subject to a worldwide export license requirement, while long-barrel shotguns and most optics can be exported with no license to U.S. allies and “certain partners.”
BIS added that “license application paperwork requirements for firearms will be streamlined and consistent with normal BIS practice,” and the government “will continue to screen firearms license applications to reduce the risk of weapons ending up in the hands of wrongdoers.”
The rule said BIS is keeping certain changes that added four new ECCNs -- 0A506, 0A507, 0A508 and 0A509 -- to the Commerce Control List, along with changes “requiring ECCN item paragraph classification or other control descriptors in the Electronic Export Information (EEI) filing in the Automated Export System (AES).”
BIS originally introduced those ECCNs to allow the agency “to better track and more readily identify exports of end-item semi-automatic firearms and shotguns and certain related” parts when reviewing EEI that exporters filed in AES, and the agency wants to keep the ECCNs because they allow BIS “to fulfill its conventional arms reporting requirements without requiring a separate submission from exporters.” It also allows the Office of Export Enforcement to “utilize its resources more efficiently to prioritize and address diversion risks of 0x5zz items.”
The agency also “retains the paragraph restructuring, clarifying edits, and conforming changes related to the new ECCNs added by the” original rule, “as they provide improved comprehension of the EAR,” BIS said. “This final rule removes all other changes to the EAR made pursuant to the” Biden rule.
The rule also removed a congressional notification requirement for license applications involving certain semiautomatic firearms. The notification requirement had applied to certain shipments of export-controlled semi-automatic firearms worth at least $4 million and exported to Mexico, South Africa, Turkey or any other country not listed in Country Group A:5 or A:6.
BIS said it’s eliminating this requirement because it’s not required under the Export Control Reform Act and has “imposed a burden on both industry and BIS.” The agency added that there are “other processes in place for BIS’s Congressional oversight committees to request information on specific licenses,” adding that the chairs or ranking members of those committees “may request such information from BIS.”
“These processes provide sufficient oversight into BIS’s firearms licensing policies and procedures,” BIS said. “Removing this notification requirement will not alter or otherwise affect the firearms licensing review process, including interagency review, and any related procedures.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which helped lead a lobbying effort to repeal the firearm restrictions, praised the BIS announcement. Larry Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel, said, “American firearm manufacturing is the worldwide leader and removing these restrictions will restore access to foreign markets while continuing to maintain adequate export controls to prevent illegal firearm trafficking.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also welcomed the BIS announcement. “A misguided Biden-era rule was going to cost the American firearms industry nearly $500 million annually while doing nothing to advance U.S. interests or regional stability,” Lee said in a statement. “President Biden’s BIS ignored Congress and used the interim final rule to advance an anti-firearms agenda, and I’m glad that President Trump’s Department of Commerce is reversing it.”
The original Biden-era rule received mixed feedback from lawmakers after it was first introduced. Nearly 90 Republicans called on the Commerce Department in March to rescind the rule, saying the controls hurt American businesses (see 2503050071), while Democrats praised the rule and urged BIS to do more to curb gun exports (see 2407170049 and 2401250069).