Mike Levin: “last month I spoke about a report released by Americans for Gun Safety Foundation entitled, ``The Enforcement Gap…”

“last month I spoke about a report released by Americans for Gun Safety Foundation entitled, ``The Enforcement Gap: Federal Gun Laws Ignored,'' analyzing the Justice Department's commitment to enforcing and prosecuting gun laws. The report examines prosecution data acquired from the Justice Department under the Freedom of Information Act for fiscal years 2000 through 2002. The AGS study reveals a significant gap between the number of federal gun crimes committed and the number of Federal prosecutions initiated. In response to this report, Representative John Dingell, the Dean of the Michigan delegation in the House, sent a letter to Attorney General Ashcroft asking ``how the Justice Department plans to improve its abysmal record of enforcement of all of the major federal firearms statutes.'' He goes on to say, ``by not enforcing existing federal firearm laws, we are not only allowing criminals to arm themselves, we are eliminating any deterrent effect these laws may have.'' Justice Department officials regularly point to a 38 percent increase in prosecutions of gun crimes since 2001 as evidence of their success. However, according to the AGS report, at the end of fiscal year 2002, federal prosecutors filed 197 cases for gun trafficking, despite 100,000 guns showing signs of trafficking. Only 27 cases were filed against corrupt gun dealers, even though AGS reports that gun dealers are the leading source of firearms recovered in gun trafficking operations.”