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DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE AND TREASURY RELEASE NATIONAL

ATF RELEASES RESULTS OF GUN DEALER

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Departments of Treasury and Justice today released the National Integrated Firearms Violence Reduction Strategy (The National Strategy). The National Strategy represents the coordinated multifaceted approach to reducing gun violence that the Clinton Administration has implemented. Building on the historic reduction in crime over the past eight years, the National Strategy also presents common sense gun violence reduction legislation needed to correct limitations in current firearms laws.

In March of 1999, President Clinton asked the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General to build on effective and innovative programs and to establish local strategies to respond to particular gun violence problems facing individual communities across the country. In response to the Presidents directive, the United States Attorneys and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Field Division Directors, working with local law enforcement and the community, established and implemented gun violence reduction plans in each of the 94 federal judicial districts. These local plans describe the on-going efforts, innovative initiatives and best practices that are a cornerstone of the National Strategy.

"The National Strategy demonstrates that tough enforcement of the gun laws at the state and federal level has kept guns out of the wrong hands and has put firearms offenders behind bars," said Attorney General Janet Reno. "Over the past eight years, we established unprecedented collaboration with our state and local law enforcement partners. Working together, we effectively and efficiently investigated and prosecuted violent crime offenders. I am very proud of the record we have achieved. As a nation, we must continue to build on what works and ensure that gun violence continues to decline."

"Through ATF's leadership and close working relationship with state and local law enforcement and prosecutors, we have demonstrated the importance of firearms enforcement at every link in the chain of gun crime from illegal sale and acquisition to illegal possession and use," said Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers. "That comprehensive enforcement commitment must continue.

The National Strategy addresses each link in the chain of gun violence -- illegal sale, acquisition, possession and use of firearms -- and sets forth a six-part approach to eliminating the scourge of gun violence by:

• vigorously investigating and prosecuting those who commit gun crimes;

• breaking the cycle of violence by punishing violent offenders and reducing recidivism;

• combating illegal trafficking and possession of firearms;

• investing in law enforcement technology;

• preventing gun accidents and suicides; and

• enacting new laws to close loopholes in existing federal law.

The National Strategy acknowledges that, even with adequate resources and aggressive use of the tools currently available to federal law enforcement, gaps still exist in federal firearms laws that must be addressed to achieve a lasting reduction in gun violence.

Therefore, the Clinton Administration's National Strategy sets forth crucial legislative proposals, such as addressing the secondary market in firearms by closing the gun show loophole, limiting firearms purchases to one handgun a month, licensing handgun purchasers to ensure that they have adequate gun safety training, and strengthening criminal penalties for armed career criminals, firearms traffickers, and juvenile offenders. These new laws, combined with our strategic collaborations with state, local and tribal law enforcement, will help to further reduce gun violence in this nation and to fulfill our duty to try to keep our streets and communities safe.

The Treasury Department today also announced the results of ATF regulatory enforcement actions undertaken in February 2000, initiated in response to findings published in ATF's annual report on Commerce in Firearms in the United States (Firearms Commerce report). The Firearms Commerce report showed that only 1.2 percent of federal firearms licensees (FFL) accounted for over half the crime guns traced to current FFLs. It also indicated that some FFLs failed to cooperate with ATF crime gun trace requests, hindering ATF's tracing and other enforcement activities, and that ATF's inability to trace re-sold guns was a major enforcement problem.

In response to these findings, ATF took a series of regulatory actions. ATF inspected the more than one thousand FFLs who in 1999 had the highest number of crime gun traces or had failed to cooperate with ATF trace requests. Nearly half of these FFLs had Gun Control Act violations serious enough to require further ATF action. ATF recommended license revocation for 20 FFLs and made nearly 700 referrals to ATF special agents for criminal investigation. ATF's inspections also disclosed over 13,000 missing guns, associated with about 200 FFLs (20 percent of those inspected). ATF also obtained supplemental records from certain uncooperative FFLs and from others with large numbers of short time-to-crime traces, that produced 750 crime gun traces, most involving used guns. These investigative leads have been forwarded to local and state law enforcement offices for further action.

The National Strategy is available through Treasury and Justice Public Affairs.

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