[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16230]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE PROBLEM WITH ILLEGAL GUNS

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, over the last 10 years, there have been 
more than 3.7 million crimes committed with firearms in this country. 
That is an average of 100 violent gun crimes every day, with almost 60 
percent of these violent gun crimes occurring in our Nation's major 
cities.
  America's major cities have been flooded with illegal guns. The 
underground market for guns is largely a product of the diversion of 
massive numbers of guns from licensed gun shops into the hands of 
criminals. A variety of sources supply the illegal market, including 
theft, unlicensed sellers who buy guns for the purpose of reselling 
them, corrupt Federal firearms licensees, and straw purchasers who buy 
guns for other unlicensed sellers, criminal users, and juveniles. Based 
on its own gun trafficking investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF, has concluded that corrupt gun 
dealers are the source of the largest number of firearms diverted to 
the illegal market. In 1998, the ATF found that 56 percent of dealers 
and 30 percent of pawnbrokers who sold 50 or more guns, had Federal 
firearms violations. In addition, 18 percent of the dealers and 45 
percent of the pawnbrokers had guns missing from their inventory.
  Despite the fact that the ATF inspections often reveal multiple 
illegal acts by gun dealers, the revocation of a dealer's license is a 
rare and difficult event. In 2003, the ATF conducted 1,812 inspections 
that uncovered regulatory violations with an average of over 80 
violations per dealer. Despite this large number of dealers with 
multiple violations, the ATF issued only 54 notices of license 
revocation that year.
  I have consistently supported commonsense legislation to help stop 
the flow of guns to the black market. Unfortunately, the failure of 
Congress to act on several commonsense bills has allowed criminals and 
terrorists continued easy access to guns. In addition to endangering 
our families and communities here in the United States, congressional 
inaction may also be helping to fuel international trafficking of 
powerful firearms.
  If we make it harder for criminals to get guns, there will be fewer 
gun violence victims. By helping to keep guns out of the wrong hands, 
we can save lives.

                          ____________________