ATF Gun Trafficking Report Is a Critical Step Forward to Fight Gun Violence
Washington DC — Today, Giffords, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, applauded the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for releasing the second in a series of reports on gun trafficking. Two years ago, Giffords called on the Biden Administration and ATF to release such a report, amongst other recommendations to comprehensively address gun violence. The ATF released the first report in May 2022, after a 20-year hiatus.
Lindsay Nichols, Policy Director, Giffords:
“This report is a vital step forward in the effort to prevent gun trafficking and save lives. It contains crucial information that will help law enforcement focus its efforts on those trafficking dangerous firearms into our communities. This has been a priority for Giffords and we commend ATF Director Dettelbach for implementing this critical step. As he said in the announcement of this most recent report, ‘information is power.’ We look forward to the additional reports to come and working with ATF to continue to fight gun trafficking.”
This report is the second in a series of four that assesses both domestic and international gun trafficking from the United States over the past 20 years. This volume, released alongside a series of graphs for each state, provides significant data about crime guns traced by law enforcement agencies and highlights the threat posed by Glock switches and other devices that too easily convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic weapons. The report also found that one of the leading causes of firearm diversion is through theft and that from 2017 to 2021, more than 1 million guns were stolen from private citizens.
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