The guidelines affect New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Texas.

The Justice Department made the argument before a judge after a coalition of gun store owners protested the two-month old rule. Federal lawyers argued before a judge that the restrictions curb the in-flow of weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

From the AP:

It requires sellers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to give the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives information about purchasers who buy two or more semi-automatic rifles greater than .22 caliber within five days.

Justice Department attorney Daniel Reiss said having a database of multiple purchasers gives ATF agents the power to trace gun sales within minutes, rather than a multi-day effort to trace the weapons back through the manufacturer, to the seller and eventually the buyer. He said two investigations have already been opened in the short time that the new reporting has been required.

“Without these reports it’s very difficult to identify these straw purchasers” who are buying the guns to pass on to the drug cartels, he said.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer questioned whether monitoring lawful gun sales is an appropriate way to stop the flow of guns to Mexican gangs. The requirement was imposed amid controversy over ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious which tried to track guns suspected of being bought by straw purchasers back to gun-smuggling ringleaders, who have long eluded law enforcement. But ATF agents lost track of 1,400 of the more than 2,000 guns identified by Fast and Furious as possibly straw purchases.

This is the second time in recent weeks federal government pressed on New Mexico gun regulations.

Earlier, The New Mexico Independent reported on a letter sent to gun store owners by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The owners were instructed to withhold the sale of arms or munitions to anyone suspected of having an interaction or addiction to prescription drugs, including marijuana.

Moreover, the letter affirms the illegality of a medicinal marijuana smoker purchasing weapons. Already, those who seek to purchase firearms or ammunition must fill out ATF Form 4473. Question 11.e. specifically asks: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” Answering ‘yes’ legally bars the individual from purchasing guns or ammunition.

The ATF letter several times referred to marijuana as an addictive drug. According to a summary of the book The Science of Marijuana (2008) in Psychology Today, a person’s risk of developing an addiction to marijuana is roughly 9 percent, compared to 33 percent for tobacco users and 15 percent for alcohol users.

Former Gov. Bill Richardson signed Senate Bill 523, known as the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, into law in September of 2007.

At the time of the passage, Richardson said: “I’m proud to sign legislation that makes patient care an important priority in this state…It is time for Congress and the federal government to follow our lead and help those forced to endure painful, chronic diseases.”

The New Mexico Independent called ATF for clarification on penalties associated with offering misleading information while purchasing a firearm; a response from the bureau is pending. In May, The American Independent wrote on the intense politicking that went into federal officials scrubbing information on the medical benefits of marijuana from a National Institutes of Health database.

For more information about the state’s medical marijuana program, visit the New Mexico Infectious Disease Bureau.

The rule requires gun dealers in Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas to inform the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) if a person buys more than one semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and uses ammunition greater than .22 caliber within five days.

“These cartels — which are responsible for more than 40,000 deaths since 2006, including Americans like Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry — have various ways of obtaining weapons that don’t include lawful purchases from legitimate gun sellers,” he added.

Mexico has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world — the Washington Postreported on the one gun store in Mexico City on a military base that requires a thorough background check and only allows purchasers to buy one small-caliber weapon. According to the Post, 60,000 American guns have been recovered in Mexico from 2006 to 2010. Straw purchasers without a criminal record often buy from different stores in border states to evade detection.

“Instead of arbitrarily implementing this misguided and constitutionally questionable policy, the Obama administration should target actual criminals rather than law-abiding citizens and immediately secure our southern border against the northbound and southbound illegal smuggling of drugs, humans, cash, guns, fugitives and stolen vehicles,” added Perry.

“Like the majority of Americans, I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms,” Obama wrote in a guest editorial that appeared in the Arizona Daily Star.

“And, in fact, my administration has not curtailed the rights of gun owners — it has expanded them, including allowing people to carry their guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.”

Those who advocate for gun safety, he said, need to recognize that “almost all gun owners in America are highly responsible,” and go to great lengths to obtain and use their weapons legally.

“Likewise, advocates for gun owners should accept the awful reality that gun violence affects Americans everywhere, whether on the streets of Chicago or at a supermarket in Tuscon,” Obama said.

The column offered by Obama comes on the heels of an open microphone at the Iowa Statehouse that revealed an embarrassing exchange between Republican lawmakers.

Iowa Rep. Jeff Kaufmann (R-Wilton) characterized proposed legislation that would allow Iowans to carry weapons without a background check or permits as a “crazy, give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic-bill.” Kaufmann has since described his comment as an ill-timed joke, and has said he hopes the unintended public exchange will spark further discussion on the intersection of mental health issues and public safety.

Despite his now open assessment of the proposed bill, however, Kaufmann has not signaled that his support has waned for the measure. And, Iowa gun advocates believe he will continue to back the bill he summarized as “crazy.”

“We don’t believe he is in anyway backing down from his support for any of the gun bills currently being heard,” Sean McClanahan, president of the Iowa Firearms Coaltion told KCRG. “Our lobbyist as well as the NRA lobbyist works with Kaufmann on a daily basis at the capitol. He is one of our biggest supporters.”

The compromise envisioned by Obama contains three key steps, all related to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System:

1. Enforcement of existing laws, which would include timely and complete transfer of data by states to the national system
2. Rewards for states that provide the best data
3. Enhancements to the existing system to make it “faster and nimbler”

If Iowa lawmakers decide to pass the proposed legislation referenced by Kaufmann, Obama’s changes wouldn’t matter to the state. Under the bill, any Iowan of legal age would be able to carry a weapon, and no background check would be required.

“Most gun-control advocates know that most gun owners are responsible citizens. Most gun owners know that the word “commonsense” isn’t a code word for “confiscation.” And none of us should be willing to remain passive in the face of violence or resigned to watching helplessly as another rampage unfolds on television,” Obama said.

The statement, translated from Spanish, reads:

In connection with information reported by numerous American and Mexican media outlets on an operation called “Fast and Furious,” conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) of the U.S. Justice Department, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs states the following:

1. Detailed information on this matter has been requested from American authorities.

2. The Mexican Government will follow with special interest the investigations announced by both ATF and the Department of Justice.

3. The aim of the governments of Mexico and the U.S. is to stop the trafficking of firearms on a basis of shared responsibility and to both work to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field. The Presidents of Mexico and the United States endorsed this priority on March 3rd in Washington, D.C.

The reference to “Fast and Furious” reflects a CBS News report from last week confirming that the project was not just informal policy within the ATF, but that it was fully authorized by the Department of Justice and even given an official name: “Fast and Furious.”

The statement comes at a time when relations between the U.S. and Mexico have ostensibly become slightly less strained after a ratcheting up of tension in recent years over skyrocketing drug cartel-related violence near the border. According to Mexican officials, around 35,000 people in Mexico have died in drug-related violence since December 2006, and while the U.S. is hardly the only source of illegal guns in the country, Mexican officials cannot be happy with a program that saw a U.S. government agency encourage the flow of guns into Mexico. Presidents Obama and Calderón held a joint press event last week in Washington at which they vowed to redouble efforts to mitigate violence in the border region and to end a years-long impasse over cross-border trucking that resulted in retaliatory food tariffs from Mexico, the U.S.’s second largest import market.

Though the Foreign Ministry’s statement alludes to this cooling off, it remains to be seen whether Mexico will be satisfied with the American government’s level of cooperation or the comprehensiveness of the ATF and DOJ internal investigations. Attorney General Eric Holder authorized a preliminary investigation of the practice last week.

In the past four years, Mexico has submitted information about more than 74,000 guns seized south of the border that the government suspects were smuggled from the United States. But much of the data is so incomplete as to be useless and has not helped authorities bust the gunrunners who supply the Mexican mafias with their vast armories, officials said.

According to U.S. agents working here, Mexican prosecutors have not made a single major arms trafficking case. [...]

As a pillar of a $1.4 billion aid program to Mexico to fight the surging violence and corrupting power of the drug cartels, the U.S. government announced three years ago that it would provide Mexico with its proprietary eTrace Internet-based system. On Tuesday in Mexico City, U.S. and Mexican officials signed a memorandum of understanding allowing for its full implementation. [...]

But translating the program into Spanish took two years. And since its delivery almost a year ago, only a dozen Mexican agents have been trained to use it.

Efforts to stop money trafficking into Mexico are also reportedly less successful than the government had hoped. National security experts argue the best method to catch drug cartel leaders is to cut off their resources — money and guns — to force them into riskier, more visible ventures.

Drug cartel violence is responsible for more than 28,000 deaths in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón took office three years ago, including brutal mass-killings near the border. It is very difficult to purchase firearms in Mexico, and the Mexican government claims 90 percent of weapons it confiscates come from the U.S., the Post reports. (U.S. law enforcement agents — and gun lobbyists — claim the percentage is actually lower.)

So far, little of the violence in Mexico has spread to the U.S., experts say. But Republican politicians continue to push for tighter border security, claiming spillover violence is a serious threat to safety in southern border states.

Video after the jump:

And, as evidenced by an email (after the jump) recently sent out by a Tampa 9.12 Project organizer, they also hold family raffles where the prize is a handgun and a box of 9 millimeter shells. (Second prize is a copy of “Opus Americana,” the trailer for which exemplifies the Tea Party’s amusing love for overly dramatic string arrangements.)

Don’t own a Springfield Armory model 1911-A1? Here’s your chance, plus fun for the whole patriotic family:

Dear Tampa 912 Member, Please join us at the Alfano Conference and Banquet Center on Tuesday, June 29th at 6:30 pm for a meet & greet and 7pm for the General Member Meeting.

LAST CHANCE TO BUY RAFFLE TICKETS FROM FAMILY FIREARMS!!!

7:00 Will Weatherford, State Representative in District 61 will discuss the re-districting constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot in November.

8:00 – FAMILY FIREARMS RAFFLE -SPRINGFIELD ARMORY MODEL 1911-A1 and a box of 9mm’s from Lime Valley Ammo -2nd Prize is a beautifully bounded Opus Americana Book

A peaceful demonstration of at least a million — hey, if we can get 10 million, even better — but at least one million armed militia men marching on Washington. A peaceful demonstration. No shooting, no one gets hurt. Just a demonstration. The only difference from any typical demonstration is we will all be armed.

Today, the 27-year-old Sickles is one of nine militia members charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government. Also, I can’t help but notice that the commentary about this on fairly mainstream conservative sites is more skeptical of the FBI than of Sickles and the militias. Neither the left nor the right takes this stuff as seriously as law enforcement does.