BILL NUMBER: SJR 10	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator De León
   (Coauthors: Senators Hancock, Hernandez, Padilla, and Vargas)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Alejo, Allen, Bonilla, Bradford,
Cedillo, Davis, Eng, Roger Hernández, Hueso, Lara, Mendoza, Perea, V.
Manuel Pérez, Solorio, and Torres)

                        JULY 5, 2011

   Relative to firearms trafficking.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SJR 10, as introduced, De León. Firearms trafficking.
   This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the
United States to pursue a comprehensive approach to stem the
trafficking of illicit United States firearms into Mexico, that
includes, among other things, the redirection of federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), United States
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and United States Customs and
Border Protection resources towards this effort, reenactment of a
strong federal assault weapons ban, adoption of the ATF's proposed
rule to require the reporting of rifle, including assault rifle,
purchases in southwestern border states, and stronger federal
authority to crack down on corrupt gun dealers.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, The rise of firearms trafficking from the United States
into Mexico has fueled the terrorism of both United States and
Mexican citizens by Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs),
that has devastated thousands of families who have lost loved ones to
violence on both sides of the border; and
   WHEREAS, Since the start of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's
administration in December 2006, the Mexican law enforcement agencies
have confiscated 102,600 handguns and rifles as of March 10, 2011,
and Mexican security forces have seized 11,849 grenades and 10.6
million rounds of ammunition; and
   WHEREAS, Violence along the United States-Mexico border has
escalated dramatically during this same timeframe as President
Calderon has aggressively fought the growing power of Mexican DTOs
and over 23,000 people have been killed as a result of drug cartel
violence in Mexico; and
   WHEREAS, In a report by the United States Government
Accountability Office (GAO), United States officials note that
violence associated with Mexican DTOs poses a serious challenge for
United States law enforcement and particularly given the increased
level of criminal activity in the southwestern United States,
violence threatens the safety of citizens on both sides of the
border; and
   WHEREAS, In May 2010, the Mexican government stated that of the
75,000 illegal firearms it seized in the last three years, about 80
percent--60,000 firearms--came from the United States; and
   WHEREAS, Estimates of guns flowing into Mexico from the United
States are as high as 2,000 guns every day, a staggering statistic
given that Mexico has only approximately 6,000 legally registered
guns; and
   WHEREAS, The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives (ATF), as of May 2010, has processed 69,808 firearm
trace requests from Mexico and it appears that a majority of these
firearms have a nexus to the United States; and
   WHEREAS, There are more than 6,600 licensed United States gun
dealers operating along the United States-Mexico border and according
to several ATF officials, individuals or groups engage in straw
purchasing on a regular basis as part of a scheme to traffic United
States firearms into Mexico; and
   WHEREAS, The ATF reports that 87 percent of firearms seized by
Mexican authorities and traced over the last five years originated in
the United States, that approximately 68 percent of these illegal
firearms were manufactured in the United States, and approximately 19
percent were manufactured in other countries and then imported into
the United States before being trafficked into Mexico; and
   WHEREAS, ATF officials state that the most common method of
transporting firearms illegally across the United States-Mexico
border is by vehicle using United States highways, and that an
opportune time to catch firearm smugglers is following a United
States gun show in Arizona or Texas; and
   WHEREAS, Operation Armas Cruzadas was established by the United
States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2008, and the
United States Department of Homeland Security states that this effort
has resulted in the seizure of 3,877 weapons and 396,424 rounds of
ammunition; and
   WHEREAS, Project Gunrunner was initiated by the ATF, with the
objective of tracing firearms recovered from crimes in Mexico, and
although the tactics utilized by this program are currently under
scrutiny, by the end of the 2009 fiscal year, the ATF referred 497
cases to the United States Department of Justice to pursue the
prosecution of firearms trafficking violations to Mexico; and
   WHEREAS, Since 2006, 14 United States Custom and Border Patrol
(CBP) Agents have been killed in Mexico, most recently Agent Brian
Terry, who was killed on December 15, 2010, by being shot with an
AK-47; and
   WHEREAS, In February 2011, ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata was shot
and killed and another federal agent was wounded in an ambush by
Mexican drug gang members at a fake military checkpoint on a Mexican
highway north of Mexico City; and
   WHEREAS, DTOs have escalated the use of firearms to attack and
intimidate high level Mexican law enforcement figures, including
directors of federal agencies, politicians, journalists, businesses,
and the general public; and
   WHEREAS, Mexican government officials report that since December
2006, a total of 915 municipal police, 698 state police, and 463
federal agents have been killed by Mexican Organized Crime Groups
(OCGs), and between 1999 and 2009, 32 news reporters or editors were
killed and an additional nine disappeared; and
   WHEREAS, On June 28, 2010, a leading Mexican gubernatorial
candidate, Rodolfo Torre Cantu, was killed by gunfire in Tamaulipas,
just days before the July 4, 2010, elections, and in late 2008,
Armando Rodriguez, a crime reporter for El Diario de Juárez, was shot
in the head by a 9mm as he drove his daughter to school; and
   WHEREAS, In June 2008, Edgar Millan Gomez, acting director of the
federal preventive police was assassinated in his own home by a man
wielding two 9mm pistols one week after holding a press conference in
Cuiliacán to announce the arrests of 12 hit men working for the
Sinaloa Cartel and that same day, Roberto Velasco, one of the
directors of the federal organized crime unit, was shot and killed in
Mexico City, and the next day Jose Aristeo, chief of staff for the
federal preventive police, was shot and killed in the same city; and
   WHEREAS, United States citizens have also been terrorized by the
violence associated with United States firearms trafficking and
Mexican DTOs. For example, in May 2010, a Phoenix businessman leading
a hunting expedition in Sonora, Mexico was found shot dead by an
AK-47, in February 2010, United States and Mexican citizens waiting
to cross into Mexico from Nogales, Arizona were trapped in a
firefight that erupted in the nearby plaza, in the spring of 2008
American tourists returning through the Lukeville port of entry were
trapped by gunfire while waiting in line, and a woman from Nogales,
Arizona was shot and killed by AK-47 gunfire at a fake military
checkpoint on a Mexican interstate in Sonora; and
   WHEREAS, The ATF proposed a new federal rule in 2010 that would
require all United States gun stores in southwest border states to
submit a report to ATF when an individual purchases two or more
rifles, including assault rifles, within five business days, and ATF'
s proposed rule has not yet been adopted; and
   WHEREAS, Following the expiration of the federal Assault Weapon
Ban in 2004, it has become easier to purchase high-powered assault
weapons and the United States Department of Justice, Office of the
Inspector General has reported that 48 percent of crime guns
recovered and traced in Mexico in 2009 were long guns, up from 20
percent in 2004 and recent data also shows a surge in seizures of
assault rifles and .50 caliber guns. According to the ATF, the drug
cartels tend to favor military-style assault weapons such as AK-47s,
AR-15s, and FN 5.7mm caliber pistols, known in Mexico as "cop killers"
because they can pierce body armor; and
   WHEREAS, The United States is now experiencing an era in which the
number of illegal border crossings have decreased over the last
decade yet drug-related violence and the trafficking of United States
firearms into Mexico has skyrocketed; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President and the
Congress of the United States to pursue a comprehensive approach to
stem the trafficking of illicit United States firearms into Mexico,
that includes the redirection of United States Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
and Customs and Border Protection resources towards this effort,
reenactment of a strong federal assault weapons ban, along with a ban
on high-capacity ammunition magazines, adoption of the ATF's
proposed rule to require the reporting of rifle, including assault
rifle, purchases in southwestern border states, stronger federal
authority to crack down on corrupt gun dealers, extending Brady
criminal background checks to all gun sales, including all sales at
gun shows to prevent firearms trafficking, and the maintenance of
firearm purchase records to help law enforcement track down armed
criminals and solve gun crimes; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States,
to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority
leader of the Senate, to each Senator and Representative from
California in the Congress of the United States, and to the author
for appropriate distribution.