Today, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) introduced legislation to provide policymakers, researchers, and law enforcement officials with data to help crack down on illegal guns and firearm dealers and solve violent crime.
The ATF Data and Anti-Trafficking Accountability Act would require the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives to publish an annual report on gun trafficking using data collected at its National Tracing Center. These reports include detailed analyses of what types of illegal firearms are being recovered, which dealers and geographical regions they’re being recovered from, what crimes they’re being used in, and an overview of investigations by the Department of Justice into how they’re being purchased and diverted into the illegal market.
“America’s gun violence crisis is compounded by the tens of thousands of firearms that find their way illegally into the hands of violent criminals or those who are not able to lawfully acquire them. There are many causes of this, and not all of them are well understood. Law enforcement and policymakers are fighting back against gun trafficking every day, but our efforts are hampered by a lack of access to good data,” said Schiff. “This bill will help develop comprehensive, critical, and up-to-date data about where these guns are coming from and where they are going, so that we can hold bad actors accountable and stem the flow of illegal firearms into our communities.” The ATF’s National Tracing Center processes trace requests every day from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that recover illegal firearms. By collecting the make, model, caliber, and serial number of these firearms, the NTC can establish how the firearm got from their importer or manufacturer to their last-known purchaser and the licensed dealer where the gun was first sold, providing them with critical investigative leads and allowing them to create links between suspects and recovered weapons. The only crime gun tracing facility of its kind, the NTC processes hundreds of thousands of trace requests annually – nearly half a million in 2020 alone – generating a huge data set that can identify trafficking patterns and the sources of firearms used in crime. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, the ATF used the data to publish comprehensive public reports covering firearm regulations, gun crime, and trafficking patterns, as well as firearm types and their sources. These reports provided a detailed analysis of guns recovered in crime in the United States and the diversion of firearms away from the legal market. While the ATF continues to produce an annual list of the type, calibers, and state of origin of traced crime guns, it has been two decades since it last issued a comprehensive report on gun trafficking. President Biden announced in April 2021 that the Department of Justice will publish annual firearms commerce and trafficking reports, the first volume of which was published this past May. However, the need for ATF to produce such reports on a regular basis remains, regardless of who occupies the White House. The legislation is co-sponsored by Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (D-Ga.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Thomas R. Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), and Katie Porter (D-Calif.). The bill is also endorsed by Brady, Giffords, Everytown, and the Community Action Justice Fund. “The ATF Data and Anti-Trafficking Accountability Act would be a transformative moment for public transparency, creating a landmark resource for the public and policymakers to visualize and therefore address gun trafficking across the nation. This data would also allow law enforcement to address gun violence through a supply-side approach, helping to stop the flow of dangerous weapons into already impacted communities where they are used in crime. This is a common-sense and necessary bill that will catalyze life-saving research and policy across the country,” said Kris Brown, president of Brady. “Congress has a responsibility to stand up to the gun lobby and act in the best interest of every American by passing gun safety laws designed to stem the flow of illegal guns into the hands of dangerous people. To do this, we need to supply lawmakers and law enforcement officials with critical data needed to better understand and address the root causes of gun trafficking,” said Nico Bocour, government affairs director at Giffords. “We are grateful to Representative Adam Schiff for introducing the ATF Data and Anti-Trafficking Accountability Act. By mandating that ATF publish an annual report on gun trafficking, we can better develop the critical measures needed to get illegal guns off the streets and safeguard our communities from harm.” “When our nation’s policymakers are forced to do their jobs with missing or incomplete data, our nation’s Black and Brown communities suffer most from the devastating –– and often interconnected –– impacts of homicide and overcriminalization. The ATF DATA Act will provide our leaders, researchers, and law enforcement agencies with the information needed to hold dealers and gun traffickers accountable who knowingly fuel the cycle of violence and profit off the death toll of vulnerable communities. We applaud Congressman Schiff for his leadership in this public health crisis and urge Congress to pass this commonsense legislation that will hold bad actors accountable and reduce gun violence in communities across America,” said Greg Jackson, executive director of Community Justice Action Fund. |
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