First sweeping federal gun crime report in 20 years released

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most expansive federal report in over two decades on guns and crime shows a shrinking turnaround between the time a gun was purchased and when it was recovered from a crime scene. This indicates that firearms bought legally are more quickly being used in crimes. The report also documents a spike in the use of conversion devices that make a semiautomatic gun fire like a machine gun, and also the growing seizure of so-called ghost guns. Steve Dettelbach is director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which produced the report. He says the release of the data is aimed at helping police and policy makers reduce gun violence.