NCJ Number
149721
Date Published
1994
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study examines the use of assault weapons in homicides committed in New York City during 1993.
Abstract
For the purposes of this study, an assault weapon is defined by New York State Assembly Bill 40001. It is any centerfire, semiautomatic shotgun or pistol capable of having loaded in its magazine chamber more than six cartridges for a long gun or 10 cartridges for a pistol. The analysis focused on the 271 homicides investigated by the New York City Police Department in 1993 in which a firearm was discharged and recovered. An assault weapon was recovered for 68 homicide incidents (25 percent). A particular firearm was positively identified with the killing 169 times (62 percent). This involvement was established through a match between ballistic evidence found in the deceased or at the homicide scene and an assault weapon recovered. It was determined that assault weapons were used in at least 43 homicide cases. Thus, assault weapons were involved in 16 percent of the 271 homicides where discharged firearms were recovered and 25 percent of the 169 homicides where a recovered firearm was positively linked with ballistic evidence from the crime. If the victims of the assault weapons homicides identified by this analysis represent the same proportion of all firearms homicide victims, then the number of possible homicide victims against whom assault weapons were used in New York City in 1993 could range from 240 (15.9 percent) to 383 (25.4 percent). 4 tables