Gun Control Reform Activism

There are no electronic records kept of gun sales by federal law. If a gun shows up at a crime scene the ATF has to open cardboard boxes of paper records and rifle (no pun intended) through thousands of paper records that aren't organized by any method to find out who owned the gun last.

These 'records' are kept at the gun store where the gun was sold, not turned over to law enforcement. An agent has to physically go to the store and open those boxes of records in the store.

The only electronic searchable database of gun owners is at the NRA which has been compiling that data for marketing purposes. They know more or less who has purchased what gun since the mid '70s. Information is given to the NRA by gun sellers voluntarily for the promotion of more gun sales but the Federal government can't compile the same information to track crime guns.