Title: Missing Guns: Tens of Thousands of Guns Leave Gun Shops Without Background Checks or Records of Sale

Publication Date: January 2011

What does it say?

Based on ATF compliance inspections of the nation's licensed gun shops, data shows that that U.S. gun shops failed to account for more than 62,000 guns.

Every gun that leaves a gun shop without a background check is one that fuels the illegal gun market and becomes prized by criminals for it's un-tracability. Corrupt gun dealers who sell guns in illegal, off-the-book sales frequently claim that those firearms were lost or stolen when ATF compliance inspections determine that the dealers' guns are unaccounted for in their inventories.

The report concludes that a day that goes by without basic controls on gun dealer inventories is another day that at least 56 guns on average flow out of gun shops without background checks or records of sale, endangering our families and our communities.

How can I use it?

Use this report to advocate that Congress take a number of actions to protect public safety:

• strengthen federal gun laws to allow ATF to conduct more than one surprise inspection of gun shops per year,
• give ATF the funding and tools it needs to shut down corrupt gun dealers who funnel guns to the criminal market,
• repeal the Tiahrt Amendment that blocks ATF from requiring that gun dealers conduct annual inventories and that shields data about missing guns from public information requests and
• confirm an ATF Director to ensure that the agency charged with enforcing federal gun laws has a confirmed leader.

Citation

Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Missing Guns: Tens of Thousands of Guns Leave Gun Shops Without Background Checks or Records of Sale, Washington, DC: Gun Industry Watch, January 2011

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