Last week, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) released the fourth and final volume of the National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), which provides new insights about the gun industry and trafficking as well as updates from previous NFCTA volumes. The news comes after the ATF confirmed that its director, Steve Dettelbach, would resign on January 18.
As the Department of Justice noted in a press release, President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland originally tasked the ATF with publishing data-driven research on gun trafficking, or the diversion of firearms from the legal to illegal markets, in April 2021. The first and second NFCTA volumes, published in 2022 and 2023, discussed firearms commerce in the United States more broadly and the top sources of crime guns, respectively. The third volume, published last year, was a case study on gun trafficking investigations.
The fourth volume of the NFCTA contains several important data points, as detailed below.
GHOST GUNS AND MACHINE GUN CONVERSION DEVICES
Between 2017 and 2023, police recovered 92,702 ghost guns, or what the ATF calls “privately made firearms.” Additionally, according to the NFCTA, the number of ghost guns recovered in 2022 and 2023 (54,722) was 44% greater than the total recovered in the previous five years (37,980).
A challenge to the ATF’s “frame and receiver” rule regulating the parts kits used to build ghost guns is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. To learn more, click here.
ghost gun recoveries
Between 2019 and 2023, police recovered 11,088 machine gun conversion devices (MCDs), including those designed and manufactured by third parties for Glock-style pistols, which are known as “Glock switches.” In that period, MCD recoveries increased by 784%, and 5,816 were recovered in 2023 alone.
Glock switches have been used in several mass shootings, including in Birmingham and Tuskegee last fall. In September, the Department of Justice announced a new task force to crack down on MCDs.
More recently, in December, the attorneys general of Minnesota and New Jersey announced new lawsuits against Glock — like the first filed in Chicago — alleging that the company has known that its pistols are uniquely easy to convert into machine guns for decades but failed to act.
mcd recoveries
glock REMAINS THE top manufacturer of crime guns
The second NFCTA volume named Glock as the top manufacturer of pistol-type crime guns recovered between 2017 and 2021, with over 255,000 Glock pistols recovered, and the latest NFCTA provides more evidence of Glock’s popularity among criminals.
Between 2022 and 2023, Glock 9mm pistols were the most frequently traced crime guns, representing nearly 12% (119,483 of 1,036,680) of all crime guns recovered and traced in those years. The latest ATF report includes a list of the top ten crime guns recovered between 2022 and 2023, which has been reproduced below.
top ten crime guns recovered by make and caliber from 2022 to 2023
| Firearm | Recovered | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Glock 9mm pistol | 119,483 | 11.5% |
| Taurus 9mm pistol | 85,450 | 8.2% |
| Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol | 49,716 | 4.8% |
| Glock .40 pistol | 47,101 | 4.5% |
| Ruger 9mm pistol | 27,735 | 2.7% |
| Smith & Wesson .40 pistol | 25,751 | 2.5% |
| HS Produkt 9mm pistol | 24,368 | 2.4% |
| Sig Sauer 9mm pistol | 21,218 | 2.0% |
| Polymer80 9mm pistol | 21,122 | 2.0% |
| SCCY 9mm pistol | 19,586 | 1.9% |
| Note: Springfield Armory is the exclusive U.S. importer of Croatian HS Produkt pistols. | ||
more key nfcta highlights
- The ATF received 2,959,257 crime gun tracing requests between 2017 and 2023. The number of tracing requests increased from 337,903 in 2017 to 521,559 in 2022, representing a 54% increase, before decreasing slightly in 2023 to 515,121 requests.
- Of the 1,276,796 trace requests submitted to the ATF from 2022 to 2023, 46% were completed using out-of-business records. Gun Owners of America (GOA), a far-right gun group that opposes all firearm regulations and is sponsored by several gun makers, has repeatedly claimed that these records amount to an illegal gun registry.
- Between 2019 and 2023, police recovered 25,414 crime guns that had previously been in police custody, including service firearms, those stolen from police, and those recovered in investigations. More than 14% (3,625 of 25,414) of these firearms were associated with a homicide (1,076) or other violent crimes (2,549) during this period. The vast majority of these guns (62%) were .40-caliber, 9mm, and .45-caliber Glock pistols.
- Between 2017 and 2023, over 100 million firearms entered the commercial U.S. market. During those years, 76 million firearms were manufactured domestically, 41.5 million firearms were imported into the U.S., and 4.2 million firearms were exported. Subtracting exports, a total of 113 million firearms were introduced into the U.S. marketplace for wholesale or retail distribution.
- The U.S. population increased 19% between 2000 and 2023. During that same time period, the number of domestically manufactured firearms per 100,000 persons in the U.S. increased by 113%.
- At least 91.6 million of those firearms were transferred by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to consumers in those years.
- Silencer manufacturing skyrocketed after the ATF sped up the approval process, confirming prior reports. According to the ATF, FFLs manufactured 5,001 silencers in 2000 compared to 480,281 in 2021, when production peaked, representing a 9,504% increase. In 2023, 408,893 silencers were produced, accounting for 83% of all items regulated by the National Firearms Act (NFA) that were manufactured and sold on the commercial market that year.
- The National Firearms Act (NFA) was designed to “curtail, if not prohibit” transactions in certain dangerous weapons, including silencers. To own one, civilians must submit an application to the ATF and undergo an enhanced background check. In the past, applicants waited months for approvals.
- But after the ATF launched a revamped system to accept online applications — after lobbying from the National Shooting Sports Foundation — wait times have been drastically reduced. From January 1 to November 19, 2024, the average number of days to process an approved NFA eForm application was only 28 days, reflecting a 79% decrease from 2016.
- Between 2016 and 2023, FFLs reported that they had lost 72,776 firearms in 9,464 incidents. Over 20,000 of those firearms went missing in 2022 and 2023 alone.
- FFLs reported that they had 46,072 firearms stolen in 7,140 incidents between 2017 and 2023. Over 11,700 of those firearms were stolen in 2022 and 2023.
ATF recommendations
The ATF concluded the fourth NFCTA volume with several recommendations. In light of the thousands of crime guns that were recovered after being in police custody, the ATF urged law enforcement agencies across the U.S. to evaluate their policies for reselling firearms, including used service firearms. The ATF also recommended that all law enforcement agencies use the agency’s eTrace and National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) systems to link crime guns to perpetrators.
Finally, the ATF asked for more resources to identify and investigate unlicensed gun dealers, who provide guns to traffickers more than any other channel, according to the third volume of the NFCTA. Such efforts can be seen as the ATF implementing its “engaged in the business” rule to carry out the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.