The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says Arkansas had more lost or stolen firearms last year than any state in the country.
While that’s certainly not good news, it’s unclear exactly what the numbers mean.
The ATF says federally licensed gun dealers in Arkansas reported 197 stolen firearms in 2015, which is comparable to similarly-sized states like Mississippi and Nevada.
Where Arkansas stands alone is with 2,754 reports of lost firearms. That’s six times more than any other state.
A bullet point on the ATF’s graph says that “audits in Arkansas resulted in a higher number of losses from this state.”
Kevin Moran, spokesman for the ATF in New Orleans, told The Baxter Bulletin that more than 98 percent of the missing firearm reports were from one dealer. He said agents found out about the missing guns after doing an inspection at the gun store.
Moran said he did not who the dealer was, or how close the dealer is to Mountain Home. He said, however, that the individual has surrendered his or her federal firearms license and no longer sells guns.
Moran said ATF agents went to the gun store and found thousands of guns missing from the store’s records. He said it’s possible the guns were sold legally, but the dealer did not record the transactions properly, and therefore the ATF must list the guns as missing.
“Your first instinct would be to say it is an alarming number,” Moran said. “I think it is probably more an accounting error on the FFL's (Federal Firearms Licensee's) part.”
Gun dealers are required to list firearm transactions in a log book. Moran said it’s possible the gun dealer responsible for driving up the numbers had a log that was either lost or not filled out properly.
“If investigators can’t resolve that issue, they have to log it as a theft or loss,” Moran said.
Moran said he did not know the specifics on why ATF agents decided to inspect that specific Arkansas gun dealer.
The Bulletin contacted the ATF office in Little Rock to ask which dealer accounted for 98 percent of the missing firearms. A representative for the office said, however, that no one there was authorized to speak with the media.
