Sending Office: Honorable Mike Quigley
Sent By:
Hannah.Mansbach@mail.house.gov

Cosponsor the TRACE ACT

Sponsored by: Rep. Quigley (D-IL)

Close the loopholes that prevent the ATF from pursuing criminals who buy and sell illegal guns

Repeal the Tiahrt Amendments to improve gun trace data

Endorsed by: Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety, Violence Policy Center

Previous Cosponsors: Reps. Cardenas, Lee (CA), Blumenauer, Cicilline, Pocan, Price, McGovern, Grijalva, Hastings, Deutch, Tsongas, DeSaulnier, Keating, Schiff, Vargas

Cosponsors: Deutch, Norton, Cardenas, Schakowsky, Cicilline, Raskin, Moore, Evans

Dear Colleague:

Please join me in cosponsoring the TRACE Act. The Trafficking Reduction and Criminal Enforcement (TRACE) Act cracks down on the illegal gun market by improving gun trace data and repealing the Tiahrt Amendments.

Currently, the ATF’s ability to aggressively pursue criminals who buy and sell illegal guns is hindered by the easy destruction of firearm serial numbers by violent criminals and the illogical restrictions put in place by Congress through the Tiahrt Amendments.
The Tiahrt Amendments, attached to CJS Appropriations since 2004, prevent the ATF from requiring gun dealers to perform inventories, require background check records be destroyed within 24 hours, and restrict access for state and local law enforcement to crime
gun trace data.

The TRACE Act requires:

Background check records to be maintained for a minimum of 180 days.

Destroying records within 24 hours makes it nearly impossible to catch law-breaking gun dealers who falsify their records or to track straw purchasers who buy guns on behalf of criminals.

Gun dealers to perform inventory checks and report lost and stolen guns.

ATF would be much more effective at identifying lost and stole weapons and combating corrupt gun dealers if dealers were required to report inventories. In 2007, the ATF found 30,000 guns missing from dealer inventories based on its inspection of just fewer
than 10 percent of gun dealers.

Grants better access to crime gun trace data to state and local law enforcement.

State and local law enforcement should not be prohibited from using trace data to revoke the license of a gun dealer caught breaking the law.

A second, hidden serial number on firearms.

An additional serial number located inside the receiver of the firearm or only visible in infrared light makes it much more difficult for criminals to erase serial numbers and easier for law enforcement to trace dangerous weapons.

We should give ATF the authority and the gun trace data it needs to stop gun trafficking and enforce our current gun laws. I urge you to support this important legislation. If you have any questions or would like to cosponsor the TRACE Act, please contact
Hannah Mansbach at 5-4061 or Hannah.Mansbach@mail.house.gov.

Sincerely,

MIKE QUIGLEY

Member of Congress