The number of orders issued to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to take back guns reached a 10-year high last year, according to an investigation published Monday by USA Today.
The FBI provided ATF agents with 4,000 directives to take guns back from individuals who should not have been able to purchase the weapons due to mental health problems, criminal backgrounds or other concerns.
“These are people who shouldn’t have weapons in the first place, and it just takes one to do something that could have tragic consequences,” former ATF official David Chipman told the newspaper. “You don’t want ATF to stand for ‘after the fact.'”
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USA Today noted that the number of successful seizures last year is unclear and that the number of guns that should not have been purchased may be higher because more than one firearm may be bought in one dealing.
The results of the publication’s investigation comes after Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month ordered a review of the federal background check system in response to a mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
That shooting left 26 people dead after the Air Force reportedly failed to place information about the alleged gunman’s previous court-martial conviction for assaulting his wife and stepson into a database used to vet individuals attempting to buy firearms.
Sessions in his directive provided the FBI and the ATF with 60 days to address the issues laid out in a memorandum.