New ATF Data Details Number of U.S. Weapons Smuggled Abroad

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has released documents detailing the origin of firearms smuggled from the United States to Mexico and Central America, marking the second time in more than 20 years since the agency disclosed the content of its research on firearms. database.

These documents form the basis of a new report from Stop US Arms to Mexico, a nonprofit organization in Oakland, California, that works to prevent gun trafficking. According to the report, more than 50,000 firearms were smuggled across the U.S. border into Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador between 2015 and 2022. The weapons were traced back to nearly every U.S. zip code, indicating that The sources of gun trafficking to Mexico and Central America are not as heavily concentrated along the southern border as previously thought.

John Lindsay-Poland, founder and coordinator of Stop US Arms to Mexico, said the information highlights the need for U.S. policymakers to take a more systematic approach to combating cross-border arms trafficking. “This data shows us that the gun market in the United States is so large and so porous that going after individual buyers is not a winning strategy,” he said, using a term designating intermediaries who purchase weapons on behalf of traffickers. “We need to look upstream, to the unregulated market that provides such easy access to traffickers. »

Lindsay-Poland obtained the traffic data after a year-long legal battle with the ATF. In March 2021, he submitted a public records request requesting information on the number of guns recovered from crime scenes in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, broken down by U.S. states, counties, and zip codes where they were purchased.

The four countries cited by Lindsay-Poland face some of the worst homicide rates in the world, driven largely by shootings carried out with weapons produced or sold in the United States.

The ATF initially denied Lindsay-Poland's request, citing limitations on the release of gun tracing data by the federal government. As The Trace previously reported, the ATF tracks the origins of hundreds of thousands of crime guns recovered by domestic and foreign law enforcement each year. These records, called traces, have been a black box for the public since 2003, when the gun industry pushed Congress to pass what is known as the Tiahrt Amendment, prohibiting the ATF from releasing detailed information on the trail outside of law enforcement.

Tiahrt authorizes the ATF to release “statistical aggregate” trace data, but the agency has historically maintained that this exception only allows it to release reports, not disclose the contents of its database in response to requests for information. public archives.

The agency tested this argument twice in federal court, yielding conflicting results. In 2020, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the western United States, ruled that the ATF must disclose the number of former police weapons found at crime scenes. (These records became the basis of The Trace's recent collaborative investigation into the police practice of reselling firearms after departments have finished using them.)

Less than a month after the 9th Circuit ruling, a judge in the 2nd Circuit – which includes New York, Connecticut and Vermont – came to the opposite conclusion, ruling that similar data was not available to document requesters public.

Lindsay-Poland sued the ATF in the 9th Circuit, and a judge ruled in her favor in December. The agency chose not to appeal the decision, handing over the records it requested in May.

Victoria Baranetsky, general counsel for the Center for Investigative Reporting, which argued the first 9th Circuit case and filed an amicus brief in the Lindsay-Poland case, said the May result sets a precedent that could make data more comprehensive records available to public records requesters in Northern California. , where Lindsay-Poland filed her complaint. However, it is not yet clear whether the outcome will affect claimants in other parts of the country.

Baranetsky called the situation very unusual. “The government had the opportunity to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court and did not do so,” she said. “Now we don’t have a clear law, and the public has to make assumptions about what decision the agency chooses to follow.”

Asked how the ATF might respond to future requests for aggregate trace data, a spokesperson said only that the agency remains steadfast in its commitment to administering the public records law “fairly and efficiently.” and that it would respond to all requests in accordance with applicable legal requirements and the Attorney General's directives.