To try to get guns out of the hands of children, the federal agency that oversees firearms began a campaign Friday to trace all such weapons involved in juvenile-related crimes and found in schools.
"Every day, we hear our children are being killed or wounded by other children," said John Magaw, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The violence, he said, is "tearing at the core of our society."Last year, 2,829 juveniles were arrested on murder charges and over 46,000 were arrested on weapons charges, an increase from 21,000 in 1982, Magaw said. Meanwhile, about 100,000 students bring guns to school every day, he said, calling that a low estimate.
The ATF traces about 53,000 guns per year, but it gets no information on whether the guns were used by juveniles. That is just a fraction of the guns seized by law enforcement agencies nationwide, he said. The reason for the relatively small number is that tracing is generally unnecessary to get convictions in court, he said.
But now the ATF wants law enforcement agencies to contact the ATF whenever guns are seized in connection with young people, he said.
There is no federal law banning sales or gifts of guns to minors, but Patrick Hynes, special agent in charge of ATF's Washington field division, said violations of local and state laws could be used to prosecute adults who wrongly sell or give guns to juveniles.