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To answer the original question, firearms are traced as follows.
1. LE looks at the firearm type and serial number and contacts the manufacturer.
2. The manufacturer consults their record and tells LE where they sent the firearm.
3. LE contacts the next entity in the chain and asks them to provide information on what they did with the firearm.
The process continues until the chain is broken--for example, a person buys the gun in question and sells it in a private sale without keeping records--or until they find the current owner of the firearm.
In some cases, the records may be held by the BATF. 4473 forms from FFLs that have gone out of business, are kept on record at the BATF. The BATF can consult those forms, but they are not allowed to compile them into a SEARCHABLE database. That means, for example, that they can store them in digital form but they can't enter the information into a database that they could search.
The process is called a reverse trace and it can work sometimes. Other times it will reach a dead end.
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