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Full access: To this and over 1 million additional datasets Save Time: Downloads allow integration with your project Valid data: Access to all sources and background information. Exclusive Corporate feature. This might be in part because the shooting happened halfway through the month. And gun sale trends could change if President Donald Trump makes another surprising comment about gun control or commits to a policy push on the issue, as he seemed to do in a recent White House roundtable.
Feinstein's reaction when Trump says she should add assault weapons ban to Manchin-Toomey pic. Background check data in March should give us a much better idea of how the Parkland shooting and the subsequent gun control debate affects the number of guns in American hands. After mass shootings in which the shooter uses military-style assault rifles, the conversation often focuses on banning or limiting assault rifle purchases.
He later flipped his position. And FBI data shows that handguns are used in the large majority of murders involving guns. In addition, people who have recently bought handguns have an increased risk of suicide , which accounts for about two in three gun deaths in the US.
This gun debate is arguably the first time since Sandy Hook that policymakers are seriously considering gun control policy. There has been no spike in gun sales so far — but if gun enthusiasts believe the political climate is ripe for new gun control policies, it might cause them to stock up on guns.
Only a handful of states limit bulk gun purchases, a policy that has been proven to reduce gun trafficking and consequently gun violence. Laws limiting the number of guns someone can buy within a certain span of time help reduce gun trafficking. Interstate trafficking of firearms flourishes, in part, because states regulate sales differently, and there is no federal limit on the number of guns an individual may purchase at any one time.
Laws limiting multiple sales can help to reduce gun trafficking. After Virginia introduced its one-gun-a-month law, there was a significant reduction in the number of crime guns recovered outside the state and traced back to Virginia dealers.
Americans support laws limiting the number of guns a person may purchase in a given time frame. Federal law does not limit the number of guns a person may buy in any given time period. The federal reporting requirements have helped ATF combat gun trafficking. The dramatic growth in the gun manufacturing industry is also demonstrated by an increase in the number of licensed gun manufacturers in the country, which grew percent from to As of , there were nearly 12, licensed firearms manufacturers in the United States.
While there are a significant number of gun manufacturers in the United States, total gun production is largely concentrated among a few large companies. Licenses to manufacture ammunition have also increased, from 1, in to 2, in There are relatively few barriers to entry in the gun manufacturing sector.
To make firearms in the United States, an individual or business must obtain a firearms manufacturing license from ATF, known as a type 07 license.
There are no substantive requirements to qualify as a gun manufacturer: Applicants must only be over age 21, be eligible to possess guns under federal law, and not have willfully violated any federal laws or regulations related to firearms. Gun manufacturers are currently subject to relatively little oversight by ATF upon receiving their license to operate. Manufacturers are required to maintain records of their firearm production and sales and are subject to one potential annual inspection of inventory and records to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
In , only 3, of the 11, licensed firearm manufacturer licensees reported to ATF on their production. This suggests two possibilities: that only 29 percent of licensees completed this requirement during , meaning that the reported number of firearms manufactured in the United States that year could be an undercount, or that a significant number of licensed manufacturers paid their fees but did not produce any weapons.
While the majority of new guns available for sale in the United States are manufactured domestically, a significant number of guns are imported into the country every year as well. Following similar trends as domestic manufacturing, gun imports have more than doubled in recent years: While the United States imported an annual average of 1. Guns imported to the United States primarily originate from 15 countries.
Brazil, Croatia, and Germany are other top suppliers of handguns, while Canada, Italy, and Turkey export a significant number of rifles and shotguns to the United States. While there were entities holding a gun import license in , this figure rose to 1, licensees in , a 53 percent increase. The duty to regulate firearms imports falls on both ATF and U. To import guns, individuals must fill out an ATF form that clearly identifies the type and number of firearms being imported in each individual shipment.
In , following a mass shooting at an elementary school in Stockton, California, that was perpetrated with a semiautomatic assault rifle and killed five children, President George H. Bush used executive authority to implement a ban on the importation of most models of foreign-made semiautomatic assault rifles. Not all guns manufactured in the United States are destined for the U. Gun exports have followed trends similar to those of domestic manufacturing and imports, rising sharply during the mids and continuing through , the most recent year for which data are available.
As shown in Figure 5, there has been a shift in the type of guns being exported: Prior to , nearly 60 percent of exported firearms were revolvers and shotguns; however, from to , rifle and pistol exports grew to make up the largest share of exported guns, accounting for more than 75 percent of the total.
Data from the U. Census Bureau reveal the primary countries receiving exported firearms from the United States from through , the most recent years for which data are available. Canada is by far the biggest recipient of U. In fact, Canada spends more money on the importation of U. In January , the Trump administration weakened oversight of small arms exports through a regulatory change that shifted export controls of semiautomatic pistols, assault-style firearms, certain sniper rifles, and their ammunition from the jurisdiction of the U.
Department of State to the U. Department of Commerce. The exponential increase in the size of the U. While there were close to 47, licensed gun dealers in , this figure rose to more than 55, by , an 18 percent increase. Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, and California are home to the highest numbers of licensed gun dealers in terms of raw numbers, while Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, North Dakota, and South Dakota have the highest rates of gun dealers per , residents.
In contrast, if you only make occasional sales of firearms from your personal collection, you do not need to be licensed. Indeed, ATF is prohibited under current federal law from maintaining any type of comprehensive list of gun sales that would provide insight into the true breadth and scale of this industry. One of the proxy measures available to assess the number of gun sales in the country is the number of background checks conducted using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Background checks have increased significantly in recent years, suggesting a rise in gun sales. While, on average, 7. The current approach to regulatory oversight of nearly every aspect of the gun industry is deeply flawed. The authority and obligation to enforce federal laws and regulations pertaining to the gun industry is vested in ATF.
It is charged with enforcing federal criminal laws related to firearms, and ATF special agents work with their counterparts in other federal law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the U. They identify, investigate, and refer for prosecution individuals and groups who violate federal gun laws by illegally possessing firearms, committing violent gun crimes, and illegally trafficking firearms both domestically and internationally.
However, ATF is also a regulatory agency responsible for conducting oversight of the gun industry and ensuring that all licensed manufacturers, importers, and dealers comply with federal law. In this role, ATF issues licenses to new businesses and conducts inspections to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations and to identify potential illegal gun trafficking activity.
This personnel shortage has serious consequences for efforts to ensure robust oversight of this industry. Under federal law, ATF is permitted to conduct one regulatory compliance inspection of each licensee per year, and ATF has set an internal goal of inspecting all gun dealers once every three years. In , ATF investigators conducted only 13, compliance inspections of firearms licensees, meaning that 83 percent of those licensed by ATF to manufacture or distribute guns did not receive an inspection that year.
While federal law allows no more than one permissive compliance inspection of federally licensed firearms dealers each year, it mandates that ATF conduct this type of inspection for each federally licensed explosives dealer once every three years.
As a result of more frequent inspections, federal explosives licensees have far fewer violations than firearms licensees. In , ATF found that 80 percent of explosives licensees had no violations during their annual compliance inspection.
Compliance inspections are also a crucial tool for uncovering missing and stolen guns. ATF has become increasingly concerned with gun thefts from dealers, noting that burglaries of licensed gun dealers increased 48 percent from to and robberies increased percent during the same period. In , there were 1,, guns initially determined to be missing from the inventory of gun dealers as a result of ATF compliance inspections. Following the inspection process, the vast majority of these guns were ultimately accounted for; however, 15, guns remained missing after the inspections were completed.
Because federal authorities are prohibited by law from maintaining a database of gun sales, when a gun is recovered in connection with a crime and needs to be traced, ATF personnel must first contact the manufacturer to determine which wholesaler or dealer had the gun as part of its inventory, then contact those businesses to learn the identity of the first retail purchaser.
If the gun was subsequently sold in a secondary transaction through another licensed gun dealer, that information will only be uncovered through more detailed and time-consuming investigative efforts. If it was subsequently sold in a private transaction in a state that does not require background checks for private sales, there will be no record of that sale at all.
Nothing in the federal law or ATF regulations imposes an affirmative obligation on gun dealers to implement practices to prevent theft, such as storing guns in secure safes or using other locking mechanisms during nonbusiness hours, improving physical security of the premises, or installing a security system. Indeed, the law does not even give ATF the authority to require that gun dealers lock their doors.
Current federal law offers only limited options for ATF to take effective action against dealers who fail to comply with applicable laws and regulations or maintain control over their potentially dangerous inventory. That is the full slate of options for ATF to address noncompliance with laws and regulations by licensed gun dealers unless it seeks recourse in the criminal justice system.
As a matter of practice, ATF is failing to make effective use of these meager tools. In , out of the 2, violations found during compliance inspections, ATF recommended revoking a license in only By contrast, ATF has far greater authority over the explosives industry.
For instance, the DEA has far-reaching authority to suspend or revoke a registrant authorized to distribute narcotics for maintenance or detoxification treatment. In addition to restrictive language in the U. These records are subject to the elements since many of the containers leak, damaging some out-of-business records beyond legibility.
One rider bans ATF from requiring gun dealers to conduct an annual inventory reconciliation to ensure that guns have not been lost or stolen. This contributes to a glut of dealers, which makes it more difficult for ATF to effectively allocate its scarce regulatory resources.
While the worst of these riders were later amended to minimize the impact on law enforcement investigations, a restriction remains that prevents the public dissemination of trace data other than in an aggregated annual report. Curio and relic firearms occupy a unique place in the federal firearms licensing scheme.
These are not merely antique guns that are locked away in display cases—modern Vietnam War-era military semiautomatic rifles still in military service, such as the SKS and Dragunov SVD, currently qualify as curios and relics. Current federal law does not treat all types of firearms equally. For nearly 90 years, certain types of firearms and accessories have been deemed especially dangerous to public safety and are therefore subject to additional restrictions on their sale and possession.
In , in response to a deadly spike in organized crime, including marked increases in violence against police officers during Prohibition, the National Firearms Act was enacted. The division also serves as a resource for technical guidance to ATF offices throughout the nation.
The NFA was enacted in by Congress to address the existential threat of unrestricted commerce in military-grade firearms that was fueling vicious gang wars. One of the most significant functions ATF serves is to determine which firearms, destructive devices, and accessories fall into the classifications of weapons that require heightened regulation under the NFA, including registration in the NFRTR or prohibition of sale in a consumer market.
The intent behind this regulatory process is to ensure firearms and firearm accessories that require additional regulation, as determined by federal law, are registered and taxed accordingly. A recent example demonstrates the importance of this ATF regulatory function to protect public safety. One common determination ATF is asked to make relates to whether a new firearm design qualifies as a short-barreled shotgun or rifle, which are more stringently regulated under the NFA than regular shotguns and rifles.
The impetus for enhanced regulation and restrictions of short-barreled long guns is tied both to the ease with which these weapons are concealable and to the extent of damage these weapons are capable of inflicting when used to perpetrate a crime, given that they fire large-caliber ammunition capable of piercing the soft-body armor commonly worn by law enforcement officers.
Despite the vital importance of ensuring that these dangerous weapons are not freely available in U. Some in the gun enthusiast community responded with both surprise and delight at this apparent new workaround to the NFA. Mossberg has continued to exploit this NFA loophole, creating more Shockwave models that are essentially short-barreled shotguns without the NFA registration or tax requirements.
The gun industry has also found another NFA dodge to create the functional equivalent of a short-barreled rifle that is not subject to heightened regulation or transfer tax: the pistol brace. Pistol braces are common firearms accessories first produced in by manufacturers claiming the intent was to help wounded and disabled veterans shoot AR-style pistols easier and more safely, by enabling a user to only rely on one hand to control and stabilize the firearm when using the brace, rather than needing to use both hands.
ATF reviewed the Shockwave Blade AR pistol brace and determined that the brace would not turn a firearm into an NFA-classified firearm when used as a forearm brace and was therefore not subject to the requirements of the NFA. This decision led to a proliferation of pistol braces that received similar decision letters from ATF, indicating that the industry seized on the opportunity to innovate around the NFA using the reasoning provided by ATF in the Shockwave letter.
The open letter appears to have caused confusion among people who were purchasing pistol braces, with many questioning whether the use of a brace required formal licensing under the NFA. ATF issued another notice on December 11, , declaring that the FTISB will only review requests for determination of accessories under the NFA or Gun Control Act if the submission includes a firearm with the accessory attached as the user intended.
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