WDTV – by Rachel McDevittEvery person needs to go through a national background check before they are allowed to purchase a gun, but sometimes that system fails, or guns are traded between people and no record is kept. It’s difficult to track down the people that have illegal firearms.
Now a new report from the Government Accountability Office is saying that our country’s top gun enforcement agency, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, doesn’t have the ability to track all the investigations involving illegal gun sales. Even though these investigations are classified as a top priority for the agency, the ATF doesn’t have the data readily available to track the suspects who weren’t flagged at the time of the purchase, but later were deemed ineligible to buy a gun because of a criminal record or a mental illness. The office says the reason for this is a four-year hiring freeze and not enough funding.
Some local residents said they aren’t surprised at this report because there are just too many guns to track.
“If you think about it there’s a lot of guns out there and there always will be,” said Christopher Dowell in Marion County. “No matter what happens, even if you get enough people to do something about it, even if the government wasn’t running on a deficit, we’d still not have enough people to catch it because these firearms are so hard to find.”
Other residents said they feel that they pay taxes and those dollars should be going to keeping communities as safe as possible.
“There’s a lot of crime and chaos going on now, and if we can find each and every way to keep this under control and keep this in check by having people do what they need to do then it should be done,” said Annie E. Little in Marion County.
The ATF has said they are now planning to modernize it’s system.
“Government Agency Doesn’t Have Capacity to Track Illegal Gun Sales”
Well I could have told you that.
“The office says the reason for this is a four-year hiring freeze and not enough funding.”
And the downside is….,…?
What is an illegal gun sale?
Exactly!
its the sale of a gun or sold to a person that was infringed upon by the federal criminal occupation.
The more folks realize the US government is just the tip of the iceberg in the realm of dog-and-pony-shows, the sooner things can get rolling as the state of fear most people have regarding removing tyranny is broken. If Palestinians can do it, so can we…at some point. That point I think is coming soon.
No dought that Government agency doesn’t have capacity to track illegal gun sales.Because It’s very difficult to track people that have illegal guns.