Court allows rule designed to find bulk rifle sales

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a gun reporting rule that the Obama administration adopted in 2011 to try to detect bulk sales of semi-automatic rifles to Mexican drug gangs.

A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the administration acted within its authority to adopt the rule, which affects firearms sellers in states bordering Mexico.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 "unambiguously authorizes" the rule, and it is unrealistic to argue, as gun retailers and manufacturers did, that the rule is too burdensome, Judge Karen Henderson wrote for the panel of three judges.

The rule requires stores in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas to notify federal law enforcement when someone buys two or more of a specific type of firearm within five business days.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) adopted the notice requirement amid soaring drug violence in Mexico, carried out in part using firearms that originated in the United States.

Retailers and gunmakers, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group based in Newtown, Connecticut, scene of the December school massacre, sued to block the rule.

With the failure of new gun control proposals in Congress since the Newtown shooting, which killed 20 elementary school children, the rule stands as one of the few firearms measures put in place by President Barack Obama's administration.

A spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An ATF spokeswoman also did not immediately respond.

The measure applies only to high-caliber, semi-automatic rifles that can use a detachable magazine.

Thousands of firearms are believed to cross the border illegally into Mexico each year, and semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines are a favorite of drug traffickers, the ATF said in a report last year.

Mexican authorities recovered more than 68,000 U.S.-sourced guns from 2007 to 2011, the ATF said.

The case is National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc, et al, v. B. Todd Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, No. 12-5009.

(Reporting by David Ingram; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-appeals-court-upholds-obama-gun-reporting-rule-143150325.html

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