Yes, it was an attempt to regulate illegal straw purchases for gun smuggling into Mexico.

"The mid-range estimate suggests that the combined seizures of roughly 37,000 firearms by Mexican and U.S. authorities represent roughly 18.2% of the weapons bought for trafficking in recent years. ... In 2007 the ATF traced 2,455 firearms confiscated in Mexico, and found that 1,805 of them, or 73.5%, came from dealers in three of the four border states: Arizona, California and Texas. In the border region there are approximately 6,700 FFLs, or 12.5% of all registered gun dealers in the United States. This represents three gun dealers for every mile of the U.S.-Mexico border."

What was your point?