Posted on 12/22/2025 5:08:18 AM PST by marktwain
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) released a report in 2024 detailing updated data about traces involving Privately Made Firearms (PMF), sometimes referred to as “ghost guns” in the media. The data covers traces from 2017 through 2023. ATF also publishes overall trace data for firearms for the covered years.
The total number of firearms traced in the seven years 2017-2023 was 288,0257. Of those, PMF traced are 92,702, or 3.2% of the total. The number of PMFs traced has been growing. In 2023, 5.4% of the total firearms traced were PMFs. Of the total homicides involving firearms from 2017 to 2023, only 1.5% were associated with PMFs. There were 1,349 homicides associated with PMFs and 87,341 homicides associated with manufactured firearms. For manufactured firearms, there were .031 homicides per trace; for PMFs there were .015 homicides per trace.
There were more than twice as many homicides per manufactured firearms traced as there were homicides for privately made firearms (PMF) traced.
Data table from ATF The ATF data showed how many traces were associated with attempted homicides. For manufactured firearms, there were .0054 attempted homicides associated with firearms per trace. For PMF, there were .0037 attempted homicides per trace. Of total homicides and attempted homicides associated with manufactured firearms, attempted homicides were 15%. Of total homicides and attempted homicides with PMF, attempted homicides were 20%. It appears homicide attempts with PMF are less likely to result in death.
Homicides and attempted homicides are involved in a small number of firearm
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
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I wonder how many of the firearms used in homicides are stolen and, therefore, untraceable whether they were PMFs or manufactured.
Almost no homicides are solved through firearm traces. Either the firearm has no link to the people involved; or the people involved are found with the firearm, and a trace does not add anything to solve the crime.
I say “almost no” because there may be a case of which I am unaware.
Why do you think the ATF spends so much time and money on the traces?
Practice? Maybe hoping to find straw purchasers.
Why do you think the ATF spends so much time and money on the traces?
2. The potential to create a national registration system from the base of the existing trace system. The gold ring of the gun control movement is to require all legal guns to be registered with the government. Gun registration is, essentially, gun confiscation.
> Gun registration is, essentially, gun confiscation
It’s a necessary predecessor for sure; and in 100% of the governments that have created a universal registry, one or more attempts at confiscation have followed. Similarly every government that disarms its people proceeds to murder them, either directly or by foreign proxies. Both have millennia of examples.
I would NEVER recommend people buy POlymer 80 lowers, a glock build kit, and manufacture your own firearms. The government MUST know who has guns and ammo. It’s for our own safety.
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