Beyond the endless arguments over gun control measures,
if we can all agree that federal authorities and local law enforcement need to solve more gun crimes
then we should collectively call for an end to a messy investigative process that’s
straight out of the 1950s.
USA Today reported last week that millions of firearm purchase records, some written
on index cards, others available only on microfilm, sit in stacks of boxes and
metal shipping containers at the government’s National Tracing Center in West
Virginia.
reported that an avalanche of
approximately 1.6 million paper documents and other records arrive every
month from defunct firearm dealers, some barely discernible, to the Bureau of
Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives facility.
Under these
circumstances, of course, tracking down a criminal on the run based on the gun
used in a violent crime is nearly a lost cause.
Ridiculous situation
If gun rights’
advocates oppose the licensing of firearms while those who favor gun control
focus intently on issues such as background checks, it would seem that some
common ground can be found in dramatically improving the process of finding and
arresting criminals who commit gun crimes.
First, the ATF
approach is an entirely archaic system. Why not contract out the creation of a
cheap and easy software program for mandatory use by firearms dealers. The
digital records system could probably be created for $20 or $30 each and it
could be made tax deductible for the purchasers.
That doesn’t
seem like an unreasonable approach to this problem.
No database, no realistic chance of catching crooks
Congress should end the ban on creating a national, searchable database to
track down shooters. Although the paper records sent to ATF are eventually
transformed into digital images, USA Today found that investigators’ use of the
computerized system is strictly limited by federal law that prohibits a database
of firearms purchasers.
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| Some of the many thousands of boxes stacked at the ATF tracing center./USA Today photo |
So, databases are used by cops and the feds in every facet of criminal investigations — except for the most deadly crimes, those involving guns.
It’s important
to remember that, according to law enforcement, most non-justified shootings
in the U.S. involve a legally purchased firearm, not a gun bought on the black
market.
50,000 rolls of microfilm
“… Thousands
of trace requests each year — as many as 18,000 last year, according to the
ATF — require document examiners to
hand-sort through unprocessed boxes of paper records or attempt to unlock the
password-protected hard-drives of newly received computerized documents to
establish a gun’s chain of custody. Still hundreds of other requests require
examiners to search a darkened library containing 50,000 rolls of microfilm, a
repository for tens of millions of purchase records.
agent) said a California film company is in the process of converting the
archaic microfilm library to digital images. But until that project is
completed sometime next year, examiners continue to dutifully check individual
rolls for analysis on decades-old readers. Because new readers are no longer
mass-produced, breakdowns require harvesting parts from older machines or doing
without.
as this month (October), examiners were required to hand-sort through paper
records to complete an ‘urgent’ trace request from local authorities. Officials
declined to identify the case, though in urgent matters, which involve the
highest-profile firearm crimes in the country, examiners attempt to complete
the trace within 24 hours. At least once a month … examiners are searching
through paper or other raw records in attempts to complete urgent requests.
Other ‘routine’’ traces take an average of three to five days.”
