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There is only one federal facility authorized to run gun serial number checks to trace Firearms recovered at the scene of a crime.

Why should you care about this and why does it matter?

The ATF National Tracing Center provides a trail of public records filled with data that can piece together a better understanding of guns recovered at the scene of a crime.

ATF Gun Trace And What It Does

The reason the ATF primarily conducts gun traces starts with the Gun Control Act of 1968, which authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to administer firearms tracing.

The attorney general delegated the ATF as the sole federal agency authorized to trace firearms.

No matter caliber or category, firearms may only be traced if they have been used or suspected to have been used in a crime.

According to ATF data, in 1988 there were just 48 trace requests to the NTC from various federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies.

In 2015, that increased to 373,349 trace requests.

These requests from law enforcement agencies are filtered through multiple programs that the NTC coordinates.

eTrace 4.0: this web database provides an online system for over 6,000 law enforcement agencies, including 43 foreign countries and over 40,000 registered law enforcement officers. Electronic firearms tracing requests are submitted with their respective details and subsequently handled by the NTC. FFL Theft/Loss Program: FFLs are required by law to report to the ATF within 48 hours of discovering a theft or loss firearms inventory. From these reports, the ATF develops investigative leads when these firearms are later found and reported to the ATF. Interstate Theft Program: The ATF fields reports of theft and loss of firearms in interstate shipments by interstate carriers. Obliterated Serial Number Program: The ATF provides forensics service in the positive identification of firearms with partially removed serial numbers. Out-of-Business Records: When FFLs go out of business, they are legally mandated to send the NTC all firearms transaction records. Curious about how much they receive? About 1.2 million per month, and since 1968 they have "several hundred million" and the ATF says it's the only system of its kind across the globe. Records Search Requests: When firearms are recovered and the ATF is contacted to trace the firearm, often the firearm may have been purchased from a now defunct FFL. The ATF then searches its out-of-business records for any leads. Multiple Sales Programs: FFLs must report the sale of two or more handguns sold to the same purchaser within five consecutive business days. This information is used by the ATF to potentially detect illegal firearms trafficking. Access 2000 Program: The NTC provides software and hardware to manufacturers to track a firearm in a serial number query. The software tracks the firearms and which distributors and retailers they are transferred to. Although the data is the property of FFLs and is not housed at the ATF, the NTC has 24/7 access in connection to firearms requested by a law enforcement agency to be traced in a criminal investigation. First purchaser information is not collected. Demand letter program: There are three categories of demand letters sent to FFLs for varying requests from the NTC.

Now those demand letters are important to consider, particularly "demand letter 2."

This is sent by the ATF to FFLs who've had 10 or more guns traced to them in the prior calendar year with a "time-to-crime" of three years or less.

The FFL is then required to send information about "used" guns acquired in the previous year, "including the manufacturer/importer, model, caliber or gauge and serial number along with the acquisition date...The FFL is required to submit this information quarterly, and until informed otherwise."

"Time-to-crime" data can provide a lot of insight that isn't widely discussed.

NTC Gun Serial Number Checks And The Information It Provides

An NTC gun serial number check will identify several points of data to assist in bona fide criminal investigations involving a respective make, model and serial number.

Please note that these statistics only identify firearms recovered, and not those in circulation.

Data points help determine what category of conduct it was recovered in and multiple other realms that may aid law enforcement.

Here are some key takeaways from the data that can be reviewed online:

Calibers recovered in 2016

In total, there 289,223 firearms recovered from every state and U.S. territory in 2016.

Here are the totals of each caliber recovered in descending order:

The ATF states an additional 141 calibers accounted for 5,331 firearms recovered.

Here are the top ten states with their respective number of recovered firearms in descending order:

What about so-called "time to crime"?

There is some data available for how much time it takes for a firearm to be sold at a retailer and subsequently be involved in a crime.

The national average is 9.79 years for the firearms the NTC has traced to be involved in criminal conduct, according to ATF data. Note that this is just the average based on the firearms they have entered in their records for that year, not on all firearms in circulation.

But it took one firearm recovered in 2016 in North Dakota just shy of two years to be involved in a crime after being sold in Maine.

There is a vastly larger proportion of firearms sold that take more than three years to be recovered and traced than those that end up in crime in under 3 months.

And all of that is a key determination of just how much data is available, and how much people can twist and present it to serve their respective argument.

For example, according to data on the categorical situations in which firearms were recovered in 2016, 12 guns were collected at abortions.

About 10,545 firearms were recovered under the category "carrying a concealed weapon."

There were four guns collected in 2016 due to election laws.

There were 11 guns in 2016 collected in a criminal investigation wherein one was teaching others how to use explosives.

The top five categories for firearms collected:

Knowing And Tracking Federal Gun Serial Number Check Data

Federal gun serial number check data is inherently flawed because it does not completely include the entire picture.

Records indicate only the first purchaser in sourcing data.

But, they cannot account for the volume of lawful private sales after that, which diminishes a crucial portion of any data: context.

And speaking of private sales, there are a number of privately ran databases wherein a serial number can be checked prior to purchase to see if the firearm was stolen.

The 289,223 recovered firearms in 2016 account for .081 percent of the total 357 million approximated by The Washington Post to be in the U.S.

The point is this:

Be wary.

This post isn't to regurgitate numbers ad nauseam until you feel one way or another.

What should be understood is that this data is available for anyone involved in any debate on the matter of gun tracking.

The resources are there and it doesn't take a news reporter or some guy on a blog to find them.

In fact, just to prove that, here are downloadable excel sheets from the ATF for a number of the topics presented here for 2016:

Top Calibers Recovered and Traced in the United States and Territories Categories Associated with Firearms Recovered and Traced in the United States and Territories Age of Possessor - Firearms Recovered and Traced in the United States and Territories Number of Firearms Sourced and Recovered in the United States and Territories Time-to-Crime – Firearms Recovered and Traced in the United States and Territories Time-to-Crime – Firearms Sourced and Recovered in the United States and Territories Firearm Types Recovered and Traced in the United States and Territories FFL Theft/Loss Reports Matching Firearms Subsequently Recovered and Traced Looking for more stats & facts on the US's gun industry? Alien Gear Holsters has you covered: The Gun Industry's Importance To The US Economy About FFL Licenses The Statistics Of American Gun Sales and Manufacturing NICS Background Checks And What The FBI Looks For $.noConflict(); jQuery(document).ready(function($) { ;(function($) { var totalReadingTimeSeconds; $.fn.readingTime = function(options) { //define default parameters var defaults = { readingTimeTarget: '.eta', readingTimeAsNumber: false, wordCountTarget: null, wordsPerMinute: 270, round: true, lang: 'en', lessThanAMinuteString: '', prependTimeString: '', prependWordString: '', remotePath: null, remoteTarget: null, success: function() {}, error: function() {} }, plugin = this, el = $(this); //merge defaults and options plugin.settings = $.extend({}, defaults, options); //define vars var s = plugin.settings; //if no element was bound if(!this.length) { //run error callback s.error.call(this); //return so chained events can continue return this; } //if s.lang is set to italian if(s.lang == 'it') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Meno di un minuto"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to french } else if(s.lang == 'fr') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Moins d'une minute"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to german } else if(s.lang == 'de') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Weniger als eine Minute"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to spanish } else if(s.lang == 'es') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Menos de un minuto"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to dutch } else if(s.lang == 'nl') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Minder dan een minuut"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to slovak } else if(s.lang == 'sk') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Menej než minútu"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to czech } else if(s.lang == 'cz') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Méne než minutu"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to Hungarian } else if(s.lang == 'hu') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Kevesebb mint egy perc"; var minShortForm = 'perc'; // if s.lang is set to Russian } else if (s.lang == 'ru') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "?????? ??????"; var minShortForm = '???'; //if s.lang is set to Arabic } else if (s.lang == 'ar') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "??? ?? ?????"; var minShortForm = '?????'; //if s.lang is set to Danish } else if(s.lang == 'da') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Mindre end et minut"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to Icelandic } else if(s.lang == 'is') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Minna en eina mínútu"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to Norwegian } else if(s.lang == 'no') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Mindre enn ett minutt"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to Polish } else if(s.lang == 'pl') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Mniej niz minute"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to Russian } else if(s.lang == 'ru') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "?????? ??????"; var minShortForm = '???'; //if s.lang is set to Swedish } else if(s.lang == 'sv') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Mindre än en minut"; var minShortForm = 'min'; //if s.lang is set to Turkish } else if(s.lang == 'tr') { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || "Bir dakikadan az"; var minShortForm = 'dk'; //default s.lang is english } else { var lessThanAMinute = s.lessThanAMinuteString || 'Less than a minute'; var minShortForm = 'min'; } var setTime = function(text) { if(text !== '') { //split text by spaces to define total words var totalWords = text.trim().split(/\s+/g).length; //define words per second based on words per minute (s.wordsPerMinute) var wordsPerSecond = s.wordsPerMinute / 60; //define total reading time in seconds totalReadingTimeSeconds = totalWords / wordsPerSecond; //define reading time in minutes //if s.round is set to true if(s.round === true) { var readingTimeMinutes = Math.round(totalReadingTimeSeconds / 60); //if s.round is set to false } else { var readingTimeMinutes = Math.floor(totalReadingTimeSeconds / 60); } //define remaining reading time seconds var readingTimeSeconds = Math.round(totalReadingTimeSeconds - readingTimeMinutes * 60); //if s.round is set to true if(s.round === true) { //if minutes are greater than 0 if(readingTimeMinutes > 0) { //set reading time by the minute $(s.readingTimeTarget).text(s.prependTimeString + readingTimeMinutes + ((!s.readingTimeAsNumber) ? 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