Gun tracing not only is a way to help identify and capture those who purchase guns illegally, it also is used to identify and alert gun sellers.
U.S. gun stores and other licensed dealers associated with a high number of crime gun traces are notified of this by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under a special regulatory program.
The “Demand Letter 2″ notice is sent to dealers that had 25 or more crime guns traced to them the previous calendar year that were used in a crime within 3 years of original purchase, a concept called “time-to-crime.” Such dealers are then required to periodically supply ATF with additional information.
The notice doesn’t necessarily mean the dealer did anything improper. It’s intended to add extra layers of scrutiny to licensed gun sellers that are being targeted by criminals.
Several North Texas gun stores received the notices in 2023, including large chains and independent stores, according to a batch of ATF notices released to USA Today.
One such store is WEG’s Guns in Farmers Branch.
A Houston man bought a .50-caliber rifle at WEG’s in 2022 with more than $8,600 in cash, court records show. Mexican authorities recovered it more than three months later in Matamoros, Mexico. The buyer pleaded guilty to a charge related to gun straw purchasing and was sentenced in September to time served in a North Texas court, court records show.
WEG’s website says it’s a family-run business. Store representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
Some dealers say handling a high volume of gun sales naturally leads to more traces.
Indeed, national chain stores were among the dealers that received notices in 2023 of crime guns traced to them from Mexico, including at least two Bass Pro Shops stores in North Texas, according to the ATF information obtained by USA Today.
Another retail chain, Range USA, also made the list. At least two of its North Texas stores sold military-style rifles or pistols to buyers who intended to give them to people to smuggle into Mexico, according to federal court records.
One of the Range USA handguns was recovered in Mexico 75 days after purchase, according to court records.
Range USA has 10 stores in Texas where it sells guns and operates indoor shooting ranges, according to its website. The Ohio-based company says it operates 48 stores in 13 states. Company representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
USA Today reported in May that more than 700 guns recovered in Mexico from 2020 to 2022 were sold by Academy Sports + Outdoors stores.
An example is found in Dallas federal court records. Clementina Flores-Espinoza in 2023 was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to making false statements to a licensed firearms dealer. Court records in her case say she had straw buyers purchase handguns for her at different dealers. One of those people in May 2023 bought a Glock pistol from an Academy store in Fort Worth, records show. The handgun was recovered in Mexico the following month, authorities said.
Federal investigators did not say Academy did anything wrong in selling the gun. Academy’s website says it is “one of the nation’s largest sporting goods and outdoor stores.” The sporting goods chain has more than 280 stores in 19 states. It reported $6 billion in sales in 2022.
An Academy spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Gun rights groups have criticized the government’s release of tracing information to requesters under the Freedom of Information Act, calling it part of a “name and shame” campaign by ATF and gun control advocates.
“This blatant disregard for the law shows that the ATF is more interested in appeasing gun control activists than upholding their legal responsibilities,” Chris McNutt, president of Texas Gun Rights, said in a July statement. “They’re not protecting law-abiding gun owners; they’re targeting them.”
Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in a statement that ATF’s public release of tracing information is a “blatant violation of federal law that threatens ongoing law enforcement investigations and the lives and safety of law enforcement officers.”
Keane said the firearm industry strongly supports ATF’s efforts to combat gun trafficking and that NSSF, the gun industry’s trade association, has partnered with the federal agency in the “Don’t Lie For the Other Guy” anti-straw purchasing campaign.
But the public disclosure of tracing information, he said, is being misused to blame gun stores for the crimes of others.
“Even the ATF,” Keane said, “says that the appearance of a firearm retailer in a trace report in no way suggests wrongdoing on the part of that retailer.”
Jonathan Lowy has a decidedly different take.
Lowy is a former top lawyer for the gun control group, Brady: United Against Gun Violence, and is now president of Global Action on Gun Violence. He said gun tracing data was regularly made public more than 20 years ago.
“It exposed dirty truths about the gun industry,” he said.
The tracing data revealed that a small percentage of gun dealers were selling virtually all the crime guns, Lowy said. And manufacturers and distributors, he said, continued to sell their guns through those unscrupulous dealers. Rather than changing their practices, Lowy said, the gun industry decided to “try to hide the evidence.”
He called the Tiahrt Amendment “an outrage to our system of government” because government data belongs to the people. He said the gun industry is more concerned about profits.
“The crime gun market is a significant portion of industry revenue,” Lowy said.
Lowy is co-counsel for the Mexican government in a federal lawsuit against five Arizona gun dealers who Mexico alleges are knowingly participating in illegal gun trafficking. The 2022 lawsuit claims the dealers are responsible for a high number of guns smuggled across the border into Mexico.
Lowy said he has brought numerous lawsuits over the years that resulted in changes to dangerous gun industry practices. Litigation is necessary to force change, he said, because Congress has not passed any meaningful legislation.
He said the problem is with the bad apples who keep selling crime guns and the manufacturers who keep supplying those stores.
“Most gun dealers are law abiding, responsible business people who take great care to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands,” Lowy said. “A small percentage turn a blind eye to glaring red flags that they’re selling to a gun trafficker.”
