Although there are about 78,000 gun dealers in the U.S.,[REF] ATF suggested that gun shows, thefts and private sales may be a greater source of trafficked Mexican guns than licensed dealers [REF].
It has been reported that more than 500 Romanian manufactured AK-47s (WASR-10) smuggled to Mexico were legally imported into the United States from Europe by Century Arms International[REF] despite a U.S. ban on the importation of certain configurations of semi-automatic rifles [REF].