See the obstacles Biden faces when trying to make progress on guns. Visit W.Va.

Biden's push to ban assault weapons is stuck in Congress. So are efforts to modernize the ATF's National Tracing Center.

MARTINSBURG (W.Va.) — The National Tracing Center, tucked away in West Virginia’s mountains, is the place that best reflects the obstacles the Biden administration faces in trying to control the nation’s gun violence epidemic.

It is located in a brick building with a simple, quiet road. It houses the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives’ sole gun tracing centre. Federal employees and contractors gather under harsh overhead lighting. Some workers sort through large stacks of paperwork. Some workers use the phones to verify vital information about weapons used in shootings or robberies, as well as other crimes.

Each day, the center receives approximately 1,800 gun trace requests from law enforcement agencies throughout the country. They are responsible for identifying the weapon and putting together the path from manufacturer to retailer to buyer.

It takes on average eight days to complete a routine trace request because of the complex tracing system, serial understaffing and inadequate funding. It can take up to 48 hours in the fastest scenarios. However, this is only true if there are additional resources available, such as after a mass shooter, according Neil Troppman who is the program manager at the tracing centre.

You can see why by looking around the facility. Sometimes workers will pull out stacks of records from the hallways and spread them on the floor. Others spend their time converting digital records into PDFs that are not searchable.

The Republicans in Congress want it that way. The agency has been viewed as having surpassed its original purpose, being turned by Democrats into an arm for gun control.

“The ATF has a history in which it has tried to target law-abiding gun store owners and gun shops — rather than criminals — in pursuit a anti-Second Amendment agenda. “That’s not the purpose for the bureau and that kind of agenda will’t keep our communities safer,” stated a spokesperson for Senator Ted Cruz (R.Texas), in a statement to POLITICO.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who pushed to modernize ATF, said that the current limitations were “deliberate roadblocks to ATF being able do its job efficiently.”

Van Hollen stated in an interview that “But let’s be clear: Nothing in the bill is a further restriction on peoples’ ability to purchase guns.”

The debate about the role and maintenance of the tracing centre is a clear illustration of the fact that the barriers to gun violence advocacy are not just legislative, but bureaucratic.

The national conversation has been dominated by President Joe Biden’s renewed call for an assault weapons ban following the Nashville mass shooting. However, White House pleas have not been heard. Democrats were rebuffed in legislative efforts to modernize the tracing center. This is because a 1986 law prohibits the government’s keeping “any type of registration” firearms, owners, or sales. Similar rejections were made by Democrats who tried to raise funding for ATF, which the White House considers a crucial agency in fighting gun violence.

Edgar Domenech, a retired ATF senior officer and former sheriff in New York City, said that “the tracing centre is stuck in the future”. It was “amazing” to see routine gun traces conducted by the ATF in just eight days, he said.

Domenech stated that although it is slower than it was in 1985 when it took seven days, the process still produces a lot of records 30 plus years later. “But the sad thing is that the method is exactly the same as when I started in 1985.

Since 1972, the ATF has been tracking firearms that were used in crimes. The ATF’s responsibilities have increased under the Biden administration rule. Instead of having to keep sales records for 20 years, licensed firearms dealers now have to collect and maintain them indefinitely. Dealers are required to keep records if a business closes or the license expires.

Sometimes these records arrive damaged while others, which are handwritten, can be difficult to read. ATF employees are responsible for organizing and preparing the documents. They use high-powered scanners that create digital screenshots. While other gun shops have made the transition to digital recordkeeping, the tracing centre must convert the files to PDFs, which are not searchable due to the 1986 law. Many times, ATF employees have to scroll through hundreds upon pages of digital screenshots in order to find the information they need.

The agency would benefit greatly from a revision to that law. Officials say that more money would also be beneficial. Biden’s proposed budget for 2024 calls for $1.9billion in ATF funding. This is 7.4 percent more than the current fiscal year. According to a White House official, the National Tracing Center has $47 million, which is in line with last fiscal year’s funding.

“Republicans in Congress have tried to cut and sub-fund ATF for decades. ATF must be given adequate resources and the ability to perform its duties effectively, at a time when there is a national epidemic in gun violence,” said the official.

Troppman stated that the number of requests for crime gun traceability has increased over time. The facility received 623 654 requests in 2022. This is an increase from 548,186 in 2021, and 490,844 for 2020. Troppman explained that while some of the rise could be due to an increase in crime shootings, the ATF encouraged law enforcement agencies and the ATF to track every weapon they found.

eTrace is an online technology-based system that allows law enforcement agencies to submit firearm trace requests. It was developed in the 1990s. The average processing time for routine trace requests has decreased from 14 to eight days in the past several years. Troppman attributes this to increased funding and resources in 2022-2023. To maintain the current response time, the center employs 65 ATF workers and 400 contractors.

According to Edward Courtney, deputy chief of the tracing centre, record prep is the most problematic area. Workers sort through stacks of papers and prepare them to digitize. The archive of 18 months’ worth document prep work is currently stored in boxes.

Up to 2,000 documents were stored in 40 shipping containers that were parked outside the building. These boxes were moved to another building and employees will begin to process the flood of documents from gun shops closing down in the next year.

Courtney stated that manual labor is required to crush the paper and get as much information as possible in paper format. “We don’t have enough space to add more than 40 people doing it at any given moment.”

In the past few months, a steady stream of congressional staffers made the trek to West Virginia to witness the process firsthand. There are also talks of a congressional delegation visiting, Troppman stated. However, there is no clear path for legislative efforts to modernize tracing centers.

Many Republicans opposed the bill last year to allow the tracing centre to maintain a searchable gun record database. They claimed that it would make it easier for the government to seize weapons from Americans or cause lawsuits against gun shops. Thomas Chittum, who was the associate deputy director of the ATF, stated that the bill was not supported by them. They argue that a digital database could reveal information about law-abiding gun purchasers.

Partisan divisions extend far beyond a national registry. GOP lawmakers have criticised the White House’s use ATF to tighten firearms enforcement. Republicans were planning to hold a vote last week to repeal another Biden administration rule requiring gun owners to register guns with stabilizing braces. But the hearing was rescheduled following a shooting at an elementary school in Nashville.

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde is a gun shop owner who is also a member the House Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees ATF financing. He has already indicated that he doesn’t see any funding increase for the agency. Andy Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, went further and stated that he hopes Congress will either “reduce funding” (or “eliminate”) the agency which he described as “woke”.

This won’t happen with a Democratic Senate and Biden in the White House. However, a decrease in funding would result in slower response times for trace requests and more bandaids to correct problems in facilities that are not operational in the 21st Century. Courtney stated that the eTrace system was just one example. The tracing center received only 50 percent of the funding required to buy and hire IT professionals in order to upgrade the system.

“So now, we have to go back to Fiscal Year 2024 and again ask. Courtney stated that it is impossible to predict what we will get. “We aren’t trying to con anybody out of more money.”

More Stories

Read More
Stay informed by joining TruthRow

24/7 coverage from 1000+ journalists. Subscriber-exclusive events. Unmatched political and international news.

You can cancel anytime