Every year, armed criminals commit hundreds of thousands of violent crimes, sometimes leaving their guns behind and providing potentially significant clues for law enforcement.

That’s where the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) National Tracing Center (NTC) comes into play, a small federal agency that in fiscal 2010 traced nearly 337,000 recovered firearms for U.S. law enforcement agencies and international partners. Keep reading →