The tracing of guns used in crimes has revealed a disconcerting trend with roots in Arizona, where firearms are finding their way into criminal hands across the nation. As reported by 12 News, the weapons used in two school shootings, one in Nashville by a 17-year-old and another perpetrated by a 56-year-old in Northern California, were both sourced from Arizona. Brendan Iber, the Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), highlighted the importance of backtracking a firearm's journey from its legal purchase to the moment it turns into an instrument of crime, a process complicated by the absence of a national gun registry in the United States.

Given the rise of privately made firearms (PMFs), infamously known as ghost guns, and machinegun conversion devices (MCDs), the issue of illegal arms has become even more complex. The ATF's latest findings in the National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA) suggest an almost 1,600 percent surge in PMFs recovered at crime scenes from 2017 to 2023, as observed in a publication by ASIS Online. ATF Director Steven M. Dettelbach, stating that background checks are a critical tool to prevent dangerous individuals from acquiring weaponry, marks this finding as a cornerstone for future policy considerations.

These disturbing trends aren't just confined to the U.S. The ATF also emphasized a global concern, uncovering that a significant amount of firearms used in crimes abroad, especially in Mexico, were sourced from the U.S. Representing to the point where several dedicated ATF teams in Arizona focus solely on firearms being trafficked into Mexico, according to Iber’s interview with 12 News. Traces of crime guns initiated in Arizona stood at around 19,000 in 2024, with most guns recovered in criminal incidents sourced from the same state.