National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA): Crime Guns - Volume Two

"The National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA) is a comprehensive examination of commerce in firearms in the United States and the diversion of firearms to illegal markets. Produced by a team comprised of ATF subject-matter experts, academics from a variety of disciplines specializing in research relating to firearms, and other law enforcement professionals, the NFCTA is designed to provide the public, researchers, and policymakers with analysis of data lawfully collected by ATF as part of its regulatory and law enforcement missions to inform the dialogue on firearm law and policy. To ensure comprehensive analysis, the NFCTA is being produced in several volumes. In May 2022, ATF published Volume I, Firearms in Commerce. Volume I presents data, information, and analysis specific to the manufacture, import, export, and sale of firearms by the regulated firearms industry in the United States. This second volume of the NFCTA, Crime Gun Intelligence and Analysis, focuses on data, information, and analysis relating to crime guns recovered by law enforcement during domestic and international investigations. Importantly, ATF accesses this data and information pursuant to specific statutory authorities and within the restrictions set by Congress to protect the privacy of lawful firearms owners.

The information that ATF relies upon to execute its law enforcement mission of protecting the public from firearm-related violence is derived from several sources. Collectively known as “Crime Gun Intelligence” (“CGI”) these sources include crime gun trace results derived from records that federal law requires federal firearms licensees (FFLs) to maintain about firearms they manufacture and distribute; ballistics data and analysis generated by ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN); and investigative information developed by ATF agents, other federal law enforcement agencies (LEAs), and local, state, territorial, tribal, and international law enforcement partners. Using these information sources, ATF routinely generates bulletins for law enforcement and industry, and issues public safety advisories for all citizens. This Volume of the NFCTA, however, represents the first comprehensive report incorporating crime gun information from the full range of sources used by ATF in more than twenty years. Advancements in ballistic analytical technology and information processing during this period have enhanced ATF’s capacity to support law enforcement efforts to identify, investigate, and prosecute those who use firearms to commit violent offenses and the traffickers who illegally divert those crime guns to criminals. Volume II describes in detail the sources of information that constitute CGI, and how CGI is leveraged to promote effective investigation of firearm-related violence.."
Firearms assessment