Stolen guns, untraceable weapons and other deadly devices are becoming more prevalent in U.S. gun crimes, new federal data shows.
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Last week, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released an expansive federal report on guns used in crimes in two decades, providing the public with more detail about stolen firearms and gun trafficking.
The data stretches from 2017 and 2021. During that period, local police reported a shrinking turnaround time for a legally purchased gun to be used in a crime. It also provides insight into the spike in ghost guns and conversion devices.
ATF Director Steven Dettelbach wrote that the findings offer “strategic intelligence” for policy makers, law enforcement and researchers to reduce gun violence.
Gun policy experts have said that the release of this data is a big step in better understanding gun crime in the U.S., and can better educate policymakers on the need to regulate several areas of the gun industry.
Lindsay Nichols, policy director with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, told NPR: “This report is a major development for ATF in terms of their transparency.”
“It’s been decades since we, the public, received this level of detail from ATF about guns that it’s tracing and about gun commerce as well,” she said. “So that in and of itself is a very positive development.”
Here are some of the takeaways from the report.
Legally purchased firearms are being used in crimes sooner than ever
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