STOPPING THE GUN FLOW

THE OBAMA administration has shied away from issues involving the
regulation of guns. Now comes word from The Post's James V. Grimaldi
and Sari Horwitz that the Justice Department is advancing a plan to
stem the flow of semiautomatic rifles to violence-plagued Mexico. It's
about time.

Over the past three years, some 30,000 people have been gunned down in
Mexico in attacks fueled by drug cartels. Military and law enforcement
officers there have seized some 60,000 weapons that were used in these
crimes and traced to the United States. Mexican President Felipe
Calderon has pleaded with U.S. officials to step up enforcement of gun
laws and reinstate the assault-weapons ban. Doing so would be good
policy but would trigger a fierce fight. For the moment, the
administration has something much more modest in mind.

As The Post reports, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives (ATF) plans to require some 8,500 gun dealers along the
Southwest border to alert the agency when they sell "within five
consecutive business days two or more semiautomatic rifles greater
than 0.22 caliber with detachable magazines" to the same individual.
The administration will notify dealers about this requirement through
"demand letters," which were created in 2000 largely to extract
information from dealers who were not complying fully with federal
reporting rules. The ATF program would lapse after six months unless
other action is taken.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns last year urged the use of demand letters
but only for dealers who have sold a significant number of weapons
traced to crimes. That plan would be worth considering if the ATF
proposal proves unworkable.

When reports of its plan surfaced, the administration came under
immediate attack from the gun rights lobby. The National Shooting
Sports Foundation, the firearms industry trade association, argued
that the administration lacked the legal authority to demand data on
rifles and shotguns. It has a point: While Congress authorized the ATF
to collect information on handgun sales, it declined to extend the
requirement to long guns. A court is likely to be asked to decide
whether demand letters may be used to shake loose this
information.

Regardless of the outcome, the administration should continue to look
for lawful ways to dam the current of illegal guns, particularly those
that are helping to destabilize America's neighbor to the south.