Right now there are millions of firearm sale records sitting in a warehouse in Virginia waiting to be processed. Kevin Johnson wrote an article about it in USA Today. He talks about the inefficiency of the ATF’s record keeping system. Records are being sent to the ATF by defunct firearm dealers. These firearm dealers are required to keep records of sales, and when they close down to send these records to the ATF. Then the records are supposed to be put into a National Tracing Center in order to assist law enforcement in tracking criminal usage of firearms.

Even though the records are being sent, they are very difficult to use. The reason for this is that there is no standardization for keeping them. The ATF reports getting stacks of notecards, hard drives, and even notebooks. Due to the lack of any uniform record system, the millions of records must be entered by hand into the National Tracking Center. The high demand on manpower to enter these records has made it impossible to enter them. This is combined with an increase in demand for these records from local law enforcement. There were over 18,000 requests last year. Many of the requests required ATF officials to hand-sort documents in order to get law enforcement the information it needed.

Even if the records could all be entered, the use of the system is highly controlled due to federal law that “Prohibits the creation of searchable a database on firearms’ buyers”. So without a warrant, local law enforcement cannot even use this database that they have created. What is the point then? Why is a database being created that is ineffective and hard to access? It seems like a waste of time in its current state. If legislation was passed that standardized the record keeping process of gun dealers, and gave wider access to the National Tracing Center, then maybe it would be worth it.

Under current Federal law neither is likely to happen. Expanding access would make it a national registry of firearm buyers. That is illegal and should change. The framework is already there for a national registry. If record keeping was standardized then the information from closed stores could be easily kept, and the information from operating stores could be accessed directly form the source. The registry could be responsible for defunct store records, and the rest of the records could be kept buy private businesses like they currently are. The ATF knows which firearms go to which stores, so allowing them to keep track of their own sales, and be able to legally access that information would make for a very transparent way of tracking firearms.

Perhaps one day a measure like this will be passed, but that is unlikely right now due to the partisan nature of the issue. The value of the system is questionable since most guns used in crime are accessed through illegal means, and this would track legal purchases. Either way, it is a measure supported by the vast majority of the public and should be implemented.