UOUTGUNNED AND OUTMANNED

TWO AGENTS WITH suits and trim haircuts lean against a cubicle wall in the cavernous red-brick building that houses the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. They’re laughing about one of the gun lobby’s favorite myths: the notion that the government has a database with the names of every gun owner in America, and that one day, maybe very soon, it will sweep across the country to confiscate everyone’s weapons.

“We always crack up when they’re like, ‘You’re coming to take our guns,’” says Corey Ray with an eye roll. “Look, we don’t have the people.” Ray, an ATF spokesman, reels off some facts: More than 10 million guns are made in the United States every year, and another 5 million are imported. That’s on top of the estimated 350 million already in Americans’ hands. Then consider