ATF Boosting Presence In Illinois To Combat Gun Trafficking

John Gregory -- Illinois Radio Network

The federal government is sending extra law enforcement agents to Chicago to help stop the flow of illegal guns into Illinois.

Seven additional agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will soon be stationed in Chicago. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) says that extra help will assist efforts to track illegal handguns that come into the state.

“We’re getting better at this,” Durbin said. “We’re collecting more information. We’re connecting the dots. We’re putting law enforcement where it needs to be with this new information, and we’ve expanded this approach beyond a smaller region to a much larger undertaking.”

Durbin says a key part of this effort is getting more law enforcement agencies to report crime guns they recover to the ATF. Currently, about half of Illinois agencies do that, but Durbin says police in other states must do the same to limit interstate gun trafficking.