INSIGHTi

Gun Trafficking and White House-Directed
DOJ-ATF Report
April 26, 2021
On April 7, 2021, the White House announced that it has directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
issue an annual report on firearms trafficking, similar to a report that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives (ATF) previously released in 2000. That report, Following the Gun: Enforcing
Federal Laws Against Firearms Traffickers, was based on a survey of 1,530 criminal investigations
conducted by ATF from July 1996 to December 1998. It followed a 1999 report on ATF’s Youth Crime
Gun Interdiction Initiative (YCGII), which was based on firearms trace data. Both prior reports explored
questions regarding the nature of gun trafficking in the United States and shed light on the unlawful flow
of firearms from jurisdictions with less restrictive firearms laws to jurisdictions with more restrictive
firearms laws. Some of ATF’s assertions about high-volume, organized gun trafficking proved debatable
and the use of trace data in civil lawsuits controversial. Congress responded by limiting the release of
unfiltered trace data and prohibiting certain lawsuits against gun dealers.
Trace Data and Related Legislation
The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA, 18 U.S.C. §§921-931) is the principal statute regulating interstate
firearms commerce in the United States. The purpose of the GCA is to assist federal, state, and local law
enforcement in ongoing efforts to reduce crime and violence. Congress constructed the GCA to allow
state and local governments to regulate firearms more strictly within their own borders, albeit subject to
certain constitutional limitations under the Second Amendment. Hence, one condition of a federal
firearms license, which permits the holder to engage in interstate firearms commerce, is that a federal
firearms licensee (FFL) must comply with both federal and state law.
In 1996, the Clinton Administration launched the YCGII to stop “traffickers,” who were unlawfully
supplying firearms to juveniles (age 17 and younger) and youth (age 18 to 24), through comprehensive
firearms tracing and analysis. By FY2004, YCGII had expanded to more than 60 cities. For FY2005, the
George W. Bush Administration requested and received funding to expand Project Safe Neighborhoods
(PSN) and YCGII to 80 cities, yet ATF dropped the YCGII program in FY2005 and began promoting the
PSN program as part of its broader integrated violence reduction strategy. For the years 1997 through
2000, ATF published YCGII reports that included data on firearm traces by participating cities.
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The cessation of the YCGII reports coincided with the passage of the “Tiahrt amendment,” a provision
named for the former Member who originally offered the amendment, Representative Todd Tiahrt. This
provision restricts ATF from using annually appropriated funding (for FY2005 forward, as modified in
P.L. 112-55) to release unfiltered trace data to anyone other than law enforcement agencies or prosecutors.
Critics assert that the Tiahrt amendment blocks academic research and the use of trace data in certain civil
lawsuits. President Joe Biden favors repealing both Tiahrt and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in
Arms Act (PLCAA; P.L. 109-92). The latter prohibits certain civil lawsuits against firearms manufacturers
and dealers to recover damages related to the unlawful use of their products by others, based in part on
ATF firearms trace data.
Nature of Gun Trafficking
In ATF’s 2000 Following the Gun report, ATF examined the thesis that organized traffickers satisfy the
criminal demand for firearms by acquiring them in jurisdictions where they are less strictly regulated, and
selling them for a premium in jurisdictions where they are more strictly regulated. Anthony Braga, a
criminologist and proponent of “supply-side measures” to combat gun trafficking, conducted the survey
for the ATF report. In a sample of 1,530 investigations, 648 (42%) involved juveniles or youth. While
federal firearms licensees were implicated in 133 (8.7%) investigations, FFLs accounted for the highest
number of diverted firearms per investigation on average (354). It was not reported how many of these
dealers were federally prosecuted. Gun shows and flea markets accounted for 198 (13%) investigations
and the next highest number of diverted firearms per investigation on average (131). Straw purchases—
the illegal purchase of a firearm by one person for another—accounted for 709 (46.3%) investigations,
and stolen firearms accounted for 367 investigations (24%). (These percentages exceed 100%, because
some investigations involved more than one channel of unlawful commerce.) A majority of investigations
(1,072, or 70.1%) involved intrastate, as opposed to interstate, destinations for trafficked firearms.
After the release of this report, Gary Kleck, also a criminologist, questioned the validity of some of ATF’s
assertions about high-volume gun traffickers. His antithesis to the “organized trafficking model” is that
the general availability of firearms does not make gun trafficking a particularly profitable criminal
enterprise, and that firearms transactions are more frequently made on a small-scale, opportunistic basis.
Kleck notes that firearms can change hands several times, under a multitude of circumstances, in some
instances lawfully through private transfers or inheritance, or when private gun owners change state
residences.
Possible Issue for Congress
In the past 20 years, ATF has increased its firearms tracing and crime gun intelligence capacities. The
House Committee on Appropriations recently noted (H.Rept. 116-455, p. 81) that Congress had
authorized ATF to release ‘‘statistical aggregate data regarding firearms traffickers and trafficking
channels,” yet it has only released “data regarding the geographical location where crime guns were first
sold at retail.” In the White House-directed report, DOJ-ATF could address both the strengths and
weaknesses of trace data as observed by both Braga’s and Kleck’s analyses, while tying trace data more
conclusively to investigations and outcomes, as one way to develop an improved national strategy to
address gun trafficking. Such an approach could possibly forestall any backlash against DOJ-ATF for
producing an unbalanced report. (For examples of Braga’s and Kleck’s viewpoints, see The Illegal Supply
of Firearms and The Myth of Big-Time Gun Trafficking, respectively.)

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Author Information

William J. Krouse

Specialist in Domestic Security and Crime Policy




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