Elijah Cummings

DOJ Agency Under Fresh Hill Scrutiny in Wake of Mass Shootings

A new House inquiry has been welcomed by gun rights activists who have been raising questions about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’s ability to do its job amid congressional restrictions that have hamstrung the agency

A congressional committee is sharpening their scrutiny of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, questioning the agency’s oversight of gun dealers who sell firearms involved in a large number of crimes, NBC News reported.

The inquiry, which comes after back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, has been welcomed by gun rights activists who have been raising questions about the ATF’s ability to do its job amid congressional restrictions that have hamstrung the agency.

In a letter sent Friday, House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., asked the agency for a series of documents to “better understand enforcement efforts” of gun dealers that sell a large number of guns that are used in crimes.

The committee is asking for the top five gun dealers of each state that are responsible for the sale of guns recovered in crimes from January 1, 2014 to August 22, 2019 and the relevant information of each purchase, including the name and location of the dealer, the number of guns sold by each dealer involved in crimes and the number of homicides or assaults committed with the guns.

Contact Us