NCJ Number
167923
Date Published
1997
Length
33 pages
Annotation
Based on crime guns for which trace requests were submitted to the National Tracing Center (NTC) during the period of July 1, 1996, through April 30, 1997, this report provides statistics on firearms in Memphis, Tenn., associated with illegal possession or activity.
Abstract
This report is part of the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative, a 17-city demonstration project aimed at reducing youth firearms violence. For the purpose of this project, a "crime gun" is defined as "any firearm that is illegally possessed, used in a crime, or suspected by enforcement officials of being used in a crime." As part of providing crime gun trace information for a 10-month period, this report contains analyses of requests for crime gun traces; analyses of successful NTC traces; analysis of incomplete traces; and analyses by adult, youth, and juvenile age categories. For the study period, Memphis had 947 crime gun trace requests to the NTC; of these, 856 (90.39 percent) possessors were identified. A total of 794 requests involved the determination of the possessor's age; there were 350 adult (25 years of age and over) trace requests, 127 youth (18-24 years old) trace requests, and 317 juvenile (17 years old and under) trace requests. An analysis of trace requests by type of firearm shows that the semiautomatic pistol was the most frequently traced firearm for all three age groups: 125 for adults, 90 for youth, and 164 for juveniles. Another table shows the top 10 crime guns requested for tracing by type, manufacturer, and caliber. Firearms offenses was the crime type most often associated with trace requests: 331 for adults, 120 for youth, and 220 for juveniles. The number of successful traces was 132 for adults, 66 for youth, 142 for juveniles, and 415 for all ages. Other data reported show time-to-crime rates for the top 10 crime guns requested for tracing by type, manufacturer, and caliber, as well as the most frequent source-State for successfully traced crime guns; the top State was Tennessee for all age categories, followed by Mississippi in distant second. General findings are discussed for all the participating communities and for local illegal firearms markets.