Stephen Halbrook | 10.1.2024 8:06 PM

ATF declares that its Final Rule at issue before the Supreme Court in Garland v. VanDerStok "will enhance public safety by helping to ensure that more firearms may be traced by law enforcement to solve crime and arrest the perpetrators." Radically expanding the definition of "firearm" from what Congress enacted is allegedly justified by the policy argument that the agency will be able to "trace" more firearms. Whether that will solve more crimes is a big "if."

We're all familiar with the spiel. A criminal leaves his gun at a "crime scene" (how often does that happen?) but gets away, unidentified. Police find the gun and ask ATF to trace it. The gun is engraved with the manufacturer's name and serial number. ATF starts with the manufacturer and, using the records kept by federal licensees, traces the gun to its retail purchaser. And voilà, the criminal is identified and arrested.

But now the sky is falling. ATF insists that its Final Rule is the Ghost Buster for "ghost guns," a propaganda term used to describe privately-made firearms. Unless the kits from which hobbyists make their own guns are declared to be "firearms," their homemade guns won't be traceable. Criminals who lose their guns at "crime scenes" won't be caught.

After years of ATF exaggerating the usefulness of tracing, Congress enacted a law in 2013 requiring ATF to "make clear that trace data cannot be used to draw broad conclusions about firearms-related crime" by including in its releases of information the following language: "Law enforcement agencies may request firearms traces for any reason, and those reasons are not necessarily reported to the Federal Government. Not all firearms used in crime are traced and not all firearms traced are used in crime."

Consider the disconnect. ATF traces all firearms it encounters. A person is subject to a domestic violence restraining order and ATF learns that he has a very large gun collection. They raid his house, seize all 200 of his guns, and then trace them. That goes down as 200 "crime guns" seized at a "crime scene" that have nothing to do with his offense of mere possession while subject to the order.
As explained in my two previous posts (here and........

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