ATF'a Firearms Tracing

ATF`S EXPERIENCE IN IMPLEMENTING FIREARMS TRACING
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Introduction
The ATF`s National Tracing Center is charged with the responsibility of assisting the law enforcement agencies in the United States to trace the source of firearms discovered during a criminal investigation. The center works at Federal, State and local levels. They also assist international agencies to trace the source of the said firearms which are used for criminal activities. During the tracing process, several events entail and a lot of information is taken into consideration. The center traces the firearm from its manufacturer to the introduction into the US. The importer and the distributors are analyzed systematically from the first purchaser of the firearm to the last person who was in the possession of the firearm before the crime took place. The process of enforcing the law involves tracing the firearm, identify the potential traffickers of the firearm and then formulate some specific patterns in the sources and history of a given type of firearm from a specific manufacturers or specific distributors towards criminal activities. Some distributors have been notorious to distribute firearms which are in most cases used by criminals for carrying out criminal activities.
The center was established as a result of the provision for the Pursuant to the Gun Control Act of 1968. There are several programs within the NTC which receive and manage information related to firearms. The main mission of the center is to trace firearms and unearth all the ‘mysteries` surrounding the use of a gun in a crime area. The center has succeeded in helping the trace of various firearms in the US and Canada and has greatly contributed towards combating crime in the US, Mexico and Canada.
The ATF has used eTrace system to trace the origin and the activities conducted by various groups of people as far as criminal activities are concerned. eTrace is a form of a web-based firearm trace mechanism which requests the submission system to provide electronic exchange of crime gun data in a form of a secure web-based environment that ensures that no information is availed to third parties. The law enforcement agencies which are charged with the responsibility of conducting crime investigations can be able to acquire round the clock and real-time information and monitor the progress of the traces. Once the traces are complete, they can be able to retrieve the completed trace results and the query firearm traces which are in the ATF`s database. The registered users are also provided with the capabilities of initiating search for traces in different ways. The users can search a firearm by a firearm`s serial number, they type of crime conducted, date the firearm was recovered or by using the individual name of the firearm. The users can also be able to generate a set of statistical reports which involves the number of traces submitted over a given period of time. The statistics obtained from the ATF`s database can help the law enforcement agencies to determine the trend in firearm smuggling and help in averting the situation (Jeunesse and Lott, 2009).
ATF`s trace mechanism has several benefits to the law enforcement agencies and the entire US population. Apart from reducing th...