TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1998//
TI  - Clueless: the misuse of BATF firearms tracing data
JO  - Law review of Michigan State University Detroit College of Law
A1  - Kopel, David B.
SP  - 171
EP  - 180
VL  - 1999
IS  - 
N2  - In ancient Greece, priests would slaughter a sacrificial animal, and then carefully examine the animal's entrails. The priests and their followers both believed that by "reading entrails," one could forecast the future. This process, fortunately, has become less messy these days: rather than using entrails, our modern fact-inventors use something much cleaner, but no more reliable: trace data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ("BATF"). Today, powerful leaders also make unsupportable claims based on "information" which was never intended to be used in such a manner. Sometimes the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traces the registered sales history of a gun which was used in a crime, or which has been seized by the police. Traced guns are not representative of the broader universe of crime guns. Accordingly, drawing public policy conclusions based on tracing data is unwise.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1087-5468
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -