Newtown Action Alliance Condemns Trump’s Reckless Rollback of Gun Export Controls
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2025
Contact: John Kelley, 917-679-6475, jkelley@newtownaction.org
Newtown Action Alliance Condemns Trump’s Reckless Rollback of Gun Export Controls
Newtown, CT – Po Murray, Chairwoman of the Newtown Action Alliance, issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s reversal of critical firearm export safeguards:
“Once again, Donald Trump is siding with the gun lobby over public safety, both at home and abroad. By dismantling firearm export safeguards, he is exporting America’s gun crisis, arming cartels and gangs, and forcing families to flee violence that our weapons fuel. This reckless rollback doesn’t just destabilize foreign nations — it drives migration to our own border and endangers U.S. service members overseas.
Congress must step in immediately to restore oversight of firearm exports, reinstate safeguards for high-risk countries, and stop government officials from promoting firearms abroad as if they were consumer goods. The United States should not be in the business of displacing families and destabilizing nations with our guns.
The freedom to live without fear — whether in a U.S. classroom or a Honduran town — should never be sacrificed for gun industry profits. We refuse to allow the U.S. gun industry, aided by reckless Trump policies, to profit while children abroad and at home pay the price in blood.”
Background
In 2020, the Trump administration first shifted oversight of semi-automatic and nonautomatic firearms, ammunition, and accessories from the U.S. State Department’s Munitions List (with strong Congressional notification requirements) to the Commerce Department’s weaker oversight system. That change stripped away transparency and accountability, treating lethal firearms as mere trade commodities.
According to Forum on the Arms Trade, the results were immediate: license approval rates soared to 94%, while the value of exports jumped from approximately $960 million to more than $1 billion. Many of these weapons flowed into high-risk countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, regions already destabilized by cartel and gang violence — much of it armed with U.S.-sourced firearms.
In 2024, after advocacy by a coalition of organizations including Newtown Action Alliance and Global Exchange, the Biden administration introduced stronger safeguards. These included:
Reducing license terms from four years to one year,
Requiring purchase orders and import certifications,
Creating a presumption of denial for 36 high-risk countries,
Expanding documentation to prevent diversion.
These reforms responded directly to pleas from governments in the Caribbean and Latin America to curb the deadly flow of U.S. weapons fueling crime and displacement.
What Trump’s Rollback Does
On September 29, 2025, the Trump administration eliminated these safeguards. The Commerce Department announced the changes would “restore rules from Trump’s first term” and open “hundreds of millions of dollars per year in export opportunities” for U.S. gun manufacturers.
Key impacts include:
Eliminating the presumption of denial for exports to 36 high-risk countries,
Reversing documentation requirements for purchase orders and import certificates,
Restoring longer, weaker licensing periods,
Allowing long-barrel shotguns and scopes to be exported license-free to U.S. allies,
Once again sidelining Congress from oversight.
While Commerce claims “screening will continue,” the very tools required for meaningful screening — documentation, Congressional oversight, and presumptions of denial — have been dismantled.
Exporting America’s Gun Crisis Abroad
This rollback doesn’t just loosen rules; it actively expands the U.S. gun industry’s footprint abroad. As Bloomberg reporting revealed, U.S. officials from President Trump’s first administration and manufacturers were working hand-in-hand to push American firearms into Latin America, promoting exports and matching U.S. gunmakers with foreign buyers. Semi-automatic gun exports to the region surged through a maze of trade routes, with deadly consequences for communities on the ground.
The human toll is staggering. Nearly three-quarters of crime guns recovered in the Caribbean trace back to the United States. Trafficked U.S.-made firearms have been implicated in mass killings, political assassinations, and terror campaigns that ravage communities abroad. That violence forces families to flee — fueling migration northward. When U.S. firearms drive instability abroad, it is no surprise that families arrive at our border seeking survival.
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Newtown Action Alliance (https://www.newtownactionalliance.org/) is a Newtown-based, national grassroots organization formed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. Our mission is to achieve the steady and continuous reduction of gun violence through legislative and cultural changes.
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Newtown Action Alliance (https://www.newtownactionalliance.org/) is a Newtown-based, national grassroots organization formed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. Our mission is to achieve the steady and continuous reduction of gun violence through legislative and cultural changes.