About 190,000 firearms were reported lost or stolen across the country last year, according to a new report by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives. USA Today reports that the audit, ordered by the Obama administration in the aftermath of the December Connecticut school massacre, is the first such public accounting by the ATF.
The bureau said 183,660 or the guns were stolen, up from 145,300 firearms reported stolen in 2010, according to a separate 2012 review by the Bureau of Justice Statics’ National Crime Victims Survey. However, the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ survey found that firearm thefts, like overall thefts, have been declining for much of the past decade. In its report, the ATF warned that its count is probably very low since most lost or stolen firearms are not reported.