Conservatives, clutch your guns again!
Actually, not really. The White House has denied a request from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to expedite a new rule requiring gun dealers along the southwest border to report bulk sales of rifles, many of which get trafficked into Mexico.
New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who co-chairs Mayors Against Illegal Guns, labels the Obama administration unconcerned.
“The White House decided that the illegal trafficking of thousands of semiautomatic assault rifles from the U.S. to Mexico is not an emergency, our coalition of over 550 mayors strongly disagrees,” Bloomberg says in a statement. “These guns are fueling violence that has claimed more than 30,000 lives and putting our law enforcement officers at risk. ATF recognizes the emergency but we need the White House to give the agency the support it needs do its job effectively.”
That means semi-automatic rifle dealers will have months, at least, during which to sell semi-automatic rifles in bulk without telling anybody.