ATF: Gun traces increased 11 percent in 2017

By Christen Smith

ATF Firearms Specialist Richard Vasquez is surrounded by a cache of firearms in the gun vault on March 5, 2010, at the ATF National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Vasquez has since retired from the agency. (Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Gun traces spiked double digits in 2017, according to federal data released this week. The National Tracing Center recovered and traced more than 322,000 firearms last year, an 11.3 percent increase over 2016.
Janice Kemp, a spokeswoman with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told Guns.com the data suggests increased participation from state and local law enforcement in federal tracing programs.
“The information provides investigative leads to law enforcement and can link a suspect to a firearm in a criminal investigation, help identify potential firearm traffickers, and detect in-state, interstate and international firearms trafficking patterns, including the sources and types of crime guns used,” Kemp said.
The NTC is the only agency authorized to track firearms in the United States. It’s headquarters — located in Martinsburg, West Virginia — houses more than 17,000 guns, an untold number of Form 4473s and other hard copy documents necessary to complete tracing investigations. Federal law restricts the creation of any digital, searchable database

Source: Guns.com