AMERICA - Missing Guns

"Lost and Loaded? 62,000 Guns 'Missing' from Gun Shops Since 2008" by DEVIN DWYER, ABC News 1/27/2011

Excerpt

ATF Data Reveals Alarming Gap in Gun Control, Brady Center Says

More than 62,000 guns disappeared from U.S. firearm dealers' inventories in the past three years without any record of being sold, according to a report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.

The estimate means, on average, that dealers "lost" 56 firearms a day between 2008 and 2010.

In many cases, the weapons were likely stolen or sold under the table or on the black market, circumventing established registration procedures and background checks, experts said. Without a record of a purchase, the weapons are considered hard to trace.

"No wonder it's so easy for gang members and dangerous people to get guns," said Paul Helmke, president and CEO of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a group favoring stricter gun control. "It's obvious these folks aren't losing inventory -- they're selling it under the table or out the back door, feeding the criminal market."

Helmke said the numbers, first publicized by the Brady Center Wednesday after appearing in a public ATF slideshow presentation at a Las Vegas trade show last week, likely understate the extent of the problem.

The ATF data are based on spot compliance inspections of 20 percent of the more than 60,000 retail gun dealers in the U.S.

"The ATF doesn't have the staffing, the manpower, the money, or the authority to do what it needs to do," Helmke said. "And they haven't had a full time director since 2006."

The ATF, which has approximately 600 inspectors, conducted 10,500 inspections in 2010. Following those inventories, dealers could not account for more than 21,000 guns.

Dealers who improperly complete licensing forms or fail to report multiple handgun sales, among other violations, could face fines or have their retail licenses revoked. Sixty-seven dealers were shut down last year, according to the data.

"We always hear from the other side that Switzerland has lots of guns and they're safe," Helmke said. "But in Switzerland you have to account for them -- individuals even have to account for the number of bullets they have at the end of each month."

Also we need to take into account how Switzerland's militia is organized:

However, the Swiss Militia continues to consist of most of the adult male population (with voluntary participation by women) required to keep an automatic rifle at home and to periodically engage in combat and marksmanship training.