A Washington DC gun control group says President Barack Obama should ban the import of assault weapons and make public a database that traces guns. Analysts with the Violence Policy Center say doing so would help crackdown on gun smuggling to Mexico. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
Violence Policy Center analysts looked at all federal firearms cases tied to Mexican gun traffickers they could find in California and three other states from 2006 to 2009.
The cases involved more than 500 guns.
Kristen Rand directs the center's legislative policy.
She says 62-percent were semiautomatic assault weapons, armor piercing handguns or anti-sniper rifles. A third were imported.
Rand says the US needs an assault weapons ban.
She says an easy step the Obama Administration can take is to enforce the assault weapons import ban, "They could address a big portion of the most favored weapons of these traffickers without ever going to Congress, and we think that's a worthwhile step for them to take."
Rand also urges the President to open up a federal gun trace database.
Amy Isackson, KPBS news.
