Bearing Arms Writer Questions What ATF's New Gun Tracing Factsheet Proves

In a Bearing Arms column, Tom Knighton looks at a new ATF factsheet explaining how the agency traces guns recovered at crime scenes. He argues the factsheet's own examples show tracing is a limited tool, and ties that to the debate over privately made firearms.

Key points

• How tracing works: According to the factsheet, investigators send a request to ATF's National Tracing Center, which uses a gun's markings to contact the maker or importer and trace ownership down to the last known retail buyer, often within hours.
• Urgent cases: The factsheet says the center works around the clock for events such as active shootings and mass casualty attacks.
• "Last known" buyer: Knighton stresses that the trail ends at the last known retail purchaser, which he says makes the record incomplete.
• The examples: He writes that ATF's examples involved people who were the original buyers and that only one led to an arrest. In the attempt on Donald Trump's life, he says, tracing at most sped up identifying the gunman.
• Registry concern: Knighton argues tracing would only be broadly useful with a central database of gun owners, which he calls a registry, and notes that criminals buying on the black market never appear as retail buyers.

Quick take

Knighton grants that tracing can make investigators' jobs easier. He argues it does not make crimes solvable by itself and calls it a poor reason to restrict gun rights.

Read the full story at Bearing Arms.