Some New Mexico Republicans are denouncing the U.S. Justice Department's new rule that would require gun shops in New Mexico, as well as Arizona, Texas and California, to report sales of certain rifles to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The new rule is designed to cut down on gunrunning to Mexican drug cartels. The rule would require gun dealers in the states along the Mexican border to report, within five days of sale, purchases of two or more rifles that are larger than .22-caliber and use detachable magazines. There already is a similar reporting requirement for handguns.

Brent Quinn, the resident agent in charge of ATF's Las Cruces field office, said Monday that the new rule is supposed to go into effect Aug. 14, but Congress might keep that from happening. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee voted 25 to 16 to prohibit the rule.

Quinn said he believes the rule would help in the effort to stop gun smuggling to Mexico. "Right now someone can walk in a gun store and buy every AK-47 on the shelves, pay with cash and, unless the dealer calls us, we don't have any intelligence on that sale," Quinn said.

Estimates of the number of gun dealers in the four states vary from about 7,000 to more than 8,000.

One local gun shop employee said Monday that the new rule would not have a major effect on his business. "We don't generally deal with multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles,"said Jay Winton, who works at The Outdoorsman of Santa Fe.

But Winton said he believes the rifle rule is an attempt by the government to divert attention from ATF's failed Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed known Mexican gang members to purchase weapons in the U.S. The idea was to track the guns to the drug cartels and build criminal cases against them.

Law enforcement lost track of guns sold as part of the program. Many have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico. When U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a firefight in Arizona, two rifles found at the scene were traced back to the Fast and Furious program.

"They continue to set rules for law-abiding citizens," said GOP presidential contender and former Gov. Gary Johnson in an interview Tuesday. Despite the rules, Johnson said, problems of violence continue along the border. "It just costs us more time and money, and it really doesn't make a difference." In a news release last week, Johnson said, "It is an outrage that this administration is using border violence as an excuse to add the names of more law-abiding gun owners to their database."

Johnson, a longtime advocate of legalizing marijuana, said drug-reform laws would solve many of the drug-related border violence problems.

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-Hobbs, also blasted the reporting requirements. "The Justice Department and the ATF are recklessly abusing their authority for political gain," he said in a news release. "This new directive from Washington smacks of partisan politics."

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat, didn't criticize the new rule, but he said Congress needs to monitor how it works.

"I am interested in seeing whether or not the collection of these reports makes a dent in the trafficking problem, and believe it is important for Congress to continue conducting its oversight responsibility to ensure that the new regulations are not infringing upon the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens," Udall said in a statement last week.

Both Johnson and Pearce also linked it to Operation Fast and Furious.

"This is the same Department of Justice that thought it was a good plan to intentionally allow hundreds of firearms to be smuggled into Mexico in a disastrous effort to somehow follow the trail of those guns to the bad guys," Johnson said.

But Quinn said the reporting requirements are not connected to the Fast and Furious program.

"I can tell you that I was asking for this when I first got here two and a half years ago," Quinn said.

UPDATE: 4:40 p.m The original version of this story mistakenly quoted Jay Winton saying his store didn't deal with multiple sales of "automatic" rifles. In fact, Winton said "semi-automatic" rifles. The text has been changed to reflect that.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.