The Boren Amendment is an appropriations “policy rider” that would prevent law enforcement from enforcing a program the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) proposed to detect and fight illegal gun trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico.

Update: In April 2011, the coalition successfully worked to keep the Boren Amendment out of the federal budget.  The Amendment would have cut off funding for enforcing the proposed ATF long gun reporting rule.
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In December 2010, ATF issued a notice in the Federal Register detailing the agency’s plans to require licensed gun dealers operating in four border states to report multiple sales of long guns. These guns – including semi-automatic assault weapons – are frequently routed directly to Mexican drug cartels that have murdered more than 34,000 Mexican citizens. This information about bulk sales is vitally important to law enforcement efforts to catch illegal traffickers.

A September 2010 report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns reveals that roughly 75% of the U.S. crime guns recovered in Mexico originate from the four border states - with roughly 40% originating from Texas alone. When controlling for population, three of the four border states - Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico - supply guns recovered in Mexico at a rate three times greater than the rate of the fourth border state, California. In addition, the time between the original sale of guns at U.S. gun dealers and the recovery of those guns at Mexican crime scenes is decreasing - a sign of ever more sophisticated gun trafficking.
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