Like drug smuggling, gun smuggling is a federal crime in the United States. However, law enforcement has tended to be less concerned with stopping guns from crossing the border than people or drugs. As a result, smugglers have taken advantage of some generous loopholes and have sent countless numbers of weapons into Mexico, into the hands of drug cartels. Now Congress is working on a law that could change that.
Congressman Elijah Cummings is proposing legislation that specifically targets weapons shipped into Mexico. This follows a period of increasing gun violence against Border Patrol agents -- from 773 attacks in 2005 to over 1,000 attacks in 2009. In particular, there was a memorable incident where the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) allowed 2,000 guns to be smuggled into Mexico as part of its "Fast and Furious" program. The agents thought that it would lead them to cartel leaders and assassins. Instead, all but 600 guns slipped detection, and the guns were linked to 150 murders. One of the murders was of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.
The new law would punish the intermediaries who purchase weapons for the cartels. It would tighten registration requirements for purchasing multiple guns, including AK-47 assault rifles. At present, arms dealers must report multiple purchases of handguns, but not assault rifles.
In light of the increasing violence, it is clear that something needs to be done to keep weapons out of the hands of drug cartel criminals. Whether the proposed law ever becomes an actual law remains to be seen: so far, there has been no mass movement to pass tougher gun laws in Congress even after it was revealed that Al Qaeda was encouraging its terrorists to purchase weapons at gun shows. If the proposal does become a law, it may distinguish between weapons for personal use and weapons that are part of a wider smuggling operation.
Even so, if the law is too broad, there is always the concern that it could lead to even more instances of illegal vehicle search and seizure at border check points than there are already. Currently, at the Sierra Blanca checkpoint, Border Patrol agents are likely to search a vehicle stopped at the border for reasons that don't even amount to reasonable suspicion, let alone probable cause. Reasonable suspicion is defined as more than an "inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or ‘hunch,'" while probable cause is stronger: "A reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime." If Border Patrol agents have yet another incentive to search vehicles -- preventing guns from being smuggled to drug cartels -- they could claim "probable cause" for searching a vehicle because the car was the same model as one owned by gun smugglers and the passengers the same ethnicity. They could claim the passengers exhibited suspicious behavior based on their justified feelings of nervousness. The result would be more people having their privacy infringed upon, and needing an experienced federal criminal defense attorney to defend them.
A law requiring better surveillance of weapons purchases is probably long overdue. But the drafters need to ensure that it is narrow enough to prevent infringement on basic rights to privacy.
