While people may have seen individuals with a jacket that reads "ATF Agent", they may have only a vague understanding of what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) does. As a law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice, the ATF is "dedicated to preventing terrorism, reducing violent crime, and protecting our Nation." On the homepage, users can read...

This Website from opensecrets.org (see the July 30, 1999 Scout Report) summarizes the current state of the debate including the positions of the interest groups on both sides and, most revealingly, offers statistics on campaign contributions from both sides of the debate to Congress. In addition, links are provided to a congressperson-by-congressperson breakdown of voting records vis-a-vis...

On Wednesday August 2, 2000, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article that analyzes the Brady Bill's impact on national homicide and suicide rates. According to the authors of the study, "based on the assumption that the greatest reductions in fatal violence would be within states that were required to institute waiting periods and background checks,...

In March 2000, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released this report giving an "overview of the firearm check procedures in each of the States and their interaction with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) operated by the FBI." Part of the Justice Department's Firearm Inquiry Statistics (FIST) project, the report delineates statistics on the number of applications...

TRAC, a nonpartisan "data gathering, data research and data distribution organization" located at Syracuse University (last reviewed in the April 16, 1999 Scout Report-- http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sr/1999/scout-990416.html#4), has put up a new edition of its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) site. Drawing data from a variety of sources, TRAC has found that referrals for federal...