Appendix 1: Understanding Crime Gun Tracing to Prevent Gun Violence
How are firearms traced?
Crime gun tracing is an important tool for law enforcement to trace the lawful chain of custody of a firearm in order to generate leads in criminal investigations where firearms are recovered. Crime gun traces are conducted by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). By law, ATF is only authorized to trace firearms recovered in crimes.
Tracing a crime gun generally involves the following step-by-step process:102ATF, “National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFTCA), Volume II: Crime Guns—Part II: National Tracing Center Overview,” February 2023, 3, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-ii-part-ii-ntc-overview/download. See Figure NTC-02: “Crime Gun Tracing Process and Workflow Chart.”
Step 1: A firearm is used in a crime and recovered by law enforcement. Local law enforcement is generally the recovering agency.
Step 2: The recovering law enforcement agency submits a request to ATF to conduct a trace. The request is generally submitted using ATF’s electronic system known as eTrace.
Step 3: ATF uses the description of the crime gun provided by the recovering law enforcement agency and contacts the original manufacturer or searches the manufacturer’s records electronically.
Step 4: The original firearm manufacturer reviews its required records and provides to ATF information on the first lawful transfer of the firearm. ATF will continue to contact each Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) in the distribution chain who possessed the gun, until the final retail FFL is contacted.
Step 5: The final retail FFL is the FFL that sells the firearm to an unlicensed individual. This retail FFL reviews its transaction records and provides a copy of the transfer record (ATF Form 4473) to ATF.
Step 6: ATF provides ATF Form 4473 to the original requesting law enforcement agency, which is then able to initiate their investigation.
Why is tracing important?
Tracing creates key investigative leads that are crucial to solving violent crimes. When a firearm is recovered in a crime, it is critical to the investigation that the source/purchaser of the firearm be identified and contacted immediately to begin identifying suspects. Additionally, in mass casualty incidents, contacting the purchaser of the firearm used in the shooting is crucial in determining the possible identity of the shooter and whether additional attacks are imminent.
Everytown Research & Policy is a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to understanding and reducing gun violence. Everytown Research & Policy works to do so by conducting methodologically rigorous research, supporting evidence-based policies, and communicating this knowledge to the American public.