Mike Levin: “last week, Americans for Gun Safety, AGS, published a report entitled ``Selling Crime: High Crime Gun Stores Fuel…”

“last week, Americans for Gun Safety, AGS, published a report entitled ``Selling Crime: High Crime Gun Stores Fuel Criminals.'' This report identifies gun stores around the country that sell the most guns used in crimes. Federal law requires gun stores to be licensed to sell firearms by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, ATF. However, according to Americans for Gun Safety, until recently, the ATF had never released information on the number of crime guns traced back to gun stores. AGS acquired all of its data via Freedom of Information Act requests. The data reveals some troubling facts. According to the report, 96 of the 120 dealers named in the report remain open, and only 24 have been inspected by federal agents during the past 3 rac{1}{2} years. When inspected, 18 of these 24 dealers were cited for at least one violation of federal gun laws and seven high crime dealers were cited more than five times. The AGS study focuses attention on negligent and irresponsible gun dealers. However, language included in the Fiscal Year 2004 Omnibus Appropriations bill will make it impossible for this data on such dealers to be made available to the public in the future.”