Political Quotes

“According to data released this month by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF, gun dealers in this country "lost" an average of 82 firearms every day last year. That means more than 30,000 firearms are mysteriously unaccounted for in gun dealers' inventories in 2007 alone. With no record of sale, these guns could be prime candidates for sale on the black market. Perhaps even more disturbing is that the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence believes that the 30,000 guns are actually likely an undercount of the total number of guns that disappeared from gun shops last year. The ATF conducted inspections at approximately 10,000 of the Nation's 60,000 gun dealers last year, finding over 30,000 firearms missing from the dealers' inventories with no record of sale. The other 50,000 dealers were not inspected due to limited ATF resources. In fiscal year 2005, the ATF examined 3,083 gun dealers and found 12,274 missing firearms. The underground market for guns is apparently largely supplied by the diversion of this massive number of guns from licensed gun shops into the hands of criminals. Based on its own gun-trafficking investigations, the ATF has concluded that corrupt gun dealers are the largest source of firearms diverted to the illegal market.”