House Republicans try to block Obama's rifle rule

WASHINGTON - House Republicans, accusing President Barack Obama of waging a war on gun owners, plan to cut off funding for an rule requiring firearms dealers in border states to report multiple sales of certain rifles.

The matter has become a flash point on both sides of the national gun control divide, elevating the debate over the Second Amendment in an election year in which the president is struggling to win again in pro-gun swing states such as New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Virginia.

Obama has vowed to veto the House's plan to prohibit the government from enforcing the border-state reporting requirement, which is contained in a larger $51 billion spending package. House floor debate on the package began Tuesday amid sharp rhetoric from gun rights backers.

"The Obama administration fundamentally dislikes guns, and more importantly it distrusts gun owners," said Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., author of the de-funding provision. "They also know that a frontal assault on the Second Amendment would be political suicide, so instead they've sought to undermine gun rights more subtly."

Overstepped authority?

At issue is a rule that requires about 8,500 firearms dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to notify the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives every time they sell two or more high-powered rifles to the same customer within five days. The White House said the mandate, implemented last August, was designed to curb gun sales to agents of Mexican drug cartels.

The rule prompted protests and lawsuits from gun rights advocates who argued the president overstepped his legal authority to regulate firearms transactions.

"We're being treated more or less like criminals," said Alex Hamilton, a San Antonio gunsmith and dealer who specializes in remodeling antique weaponry. "It's very discriminatory."

Gun control advocates such as Dennis Henigan, vice president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, say the move by House Republicans is "anti-law-enforcement."

ATF officials insist the requirement already has yielded information agents are using to break up Mexican cartel gun-trafficking rings. Since August, ATF has received more than 3,000 reports involving more than 7,300 rifles. Texas gun dealers have submitted 1,900 reports involving over 4,600 rifles - the highest of the four states.

The reports have sparked the opening of more than 120 criminal investigations, ATF officials say. Those in turn have led to 25 prosecutions of more than 100 defendants.

9 traffickers arrested

Officials point to a Texas case in which a gun dealer's multiple-sales reports helped pinpoint an arms trafficker who purchased 28 weapons from a dealer in McAllen. Agents so far have arrested nine individuals in the trafficker's ring.

Since the 1970s, ATF has required all gun dealers nationwide to report multiple sales of handguns. That requirement was written into the landmark 1968 Gun Control Act, enacted following the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.

But gun-rights advocates argue the Obama administration must seek congressional approval if it wants to extend the handgun requirement to rifles - something that's not likely to happen as long as gun-friendly Republicans control the House.

dan@hearstdc.com Twitter: @danfreedman