The federal government recently produced two notable documents on gun violence last week. The first, a report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, provided a measure of the mayhem induced by the deregulation of firearms and the removal of strictures on virtually anyone wishing to possess them. The second, a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was a solemn promise of more chaos to come.
The ATF report, which analyzed the years 2017 to 2021, noted the proliferation of ghost guns, which lack serial numbers and can’t be traced, at crime scenes. Recoveries of ghost guns used in crimes rose by a factor of 10, from fewer than 2,000 in 2017 to almost 20,000 in 2021. The report also registered which semi-automatic pistols are preferred by criminals, with Glock leading the pack.
But the preferences of criminals are only one element of gun violence. The recklessness of gun owners is also a key to fueling the illegal gun trade that, in turn, powers violent crime. Private citizens wind up supplying more than a quarter of a million guns to criminals every year. From 2017 to 2021, 1,074,022 firearms were reported stolen, the overwhelming majority from private gun owners. Remarkably, roughly 1 in 4 firearm thefts aren’t reported.
