02/10/2023
“In April 2021, Attorney General Garland directed the Bureau of Alcohol, To***co, Fi****ms, and Explosives (ATF) to undertake its first comprehensive study of criminal gun trafficking in over two decades. The first volume of the assessment was published in May of 2022”
“One of the key data-points trace data provides is the “time to crime” – the time from the last known retail sale of a firearm to when it is recovered in a crime. Shorter time-to-crime periods are indicators of illegal trafficking and provide crucial intelligence to investigators. Between 2017 and 2021, nearly 25% of traced crime guns – more than 366,000 guns – had a time-to-crime of less than one-year, and 46% had a time-to-crime of three years or less.
Trace data also provides key intelligence on firearm trafficking patterns. The data analysis in Volume II confirms that although most – 72% nationally – traced crime guns are recovered in the same state in which they were acquired from a Federal Fi****ms Licensee (FFL), certain states and cities are targets for firearm traffickers. The cross-jurisdictional nature of this issue – guns purchased in one state and trafficked to another where they’re used in crime – is what led the Attorney General to launch five fi****ms trafficking strike forces in July 2021.
A significant way fi****ms are diverted is through theft. The report shows that from 2017 to 2021, there were 1,023,538 fi****ms stolen from private citizens. These private thefts make up 96% of all fi****ms reported stolen during that time period.
***The data also reveals emerging technological trends. For instance, in the last five years, the number of illegal machine gun conversion devices that law enforcement agencies reported being recovered has increased by an alarming 570%. Conversion devices are used to convert semi-automatic fi****ms, which are legal, into fully automatic machine guns, which are illegal under the National Fi****ms Act.
In May 2022, the Department issued Volume I of the NFCTA, Fi****ms in Commerce, which presents and analyzes data collected by ATF and other federal agencies related to the manufacture, exportation, and importation of fi****ms.
To produce the NFCTA, the ATF assembled a team of subject experts from ATF, as well as from academic and related fields. Although ATF issues a variety of public and law enforcement reports and bulletins regarding firearm commerce, trafficking, and related issues every year, it has not undertaken a joint academic study on the scale of the NFCTA in more than 20 years.”
The Justice Department today announced the publication of Crime Gun Intelligence and Analysis, the second volume of the National Fi****ms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), a four-part, comprehensive examination of commerce in fi****ms and the diversion of fi****ms to illegal markets. Volu...
