Following the shooting incident at Donald Trump's Pennsylvania rally, federal law enforcement swiftly utilized a meticulous paper records system to trace decade-old gun sales records, aiding in the identification of the 20-year-old assailant.
The shooter, later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, lacked any form of identification when confronted by Secret Service agents. However, he was armed with an AR-style rifle used in the attack.
ATF analysts based in West Virginia manually sift through millions of documents daily to determine the origins of firearms involved in criminal activities. Typically, the bureau takes around eight days to trace a weapon, but for urgent cases, this average drops to 24 hours.
This tracing system has been instrumental in various high-profile and time-sensitive investigations. For instance, after a mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, authorities used the ATF system to identify the perpetrator based on a firearm left at the scene. Similarly, in Monterey Park, California, police utilized a weapon wrestled away from a shooter to establish his identity.
Despite some criticisms regarding the system's efficiency and reliability, the ATF tracing process remains crucial in cases involving recovered firearms at crime scenes. Local ATF offices can request an emergency trace for weapons found in such scenarios.
While modern evidence gathering techniques have evolved to include high-tech methods, ATF agents often resort to manual searches through paper records to trace a gun's history. Some records are even stored on microfiche or in shipping containers, particularly for closed business records.
The outdated records-keeping system is a result of congressional laws prohibiting the ATF from creating searchable digital databases, partly due to concerns raised by gun rights groups regarding potential firearm owner databases and confiscation fears.
Despite these challenges, the urgent ATF trace conducted after the Pennsylvania shooting proved pivotal in identifying the assailant within 30 minutes. The trace led authorities to a 2013 purchase of the AR-15 style rifle from a now-defunct dealer, ultimately linking the weapon to the shooter's father.
Collaborating with the gun's manufacturer and meticulously examining the closed gun shop's paper records, ATF agents were able to trace the rifle back to the shooter's father, shedding light on his potential involvement in firearms activities.
This breakthrough enabled federal law enforcement to swiftly locate Crooks' residence and focus their investigation on the individual responsible for the assassination attempt.
