The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) assists law enforcement by tracing firearms linked to crimes, utilizing data from licensed dealers who must respond to trace requests within 24 hours. Recently, the ATF has expanded access to its tracing information under Freedom of Information Act requests, revealing that over 623,000 trace requests were processed in fiscal year 2022 alone.
Among the major findings, a notable 74% of international traces come from Mexico, with Texas as the top source for guns smuggled into the country. Despite these efforts, 73% of trace requests from 2017 to 2021 failed to identify the firearm’s purchaser, often due to incomplete or incorrect information, underscoring the challenges faced in tracing illegal firearms effectively.
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