NCJ Number
199121
Date Published
November 2000
Length
160 pages
Annotation
This National Report on crime gun traces includes data and information on possessors of crime guns, indicators of illegal diversion, crime guns, officer safety, and geographic patterns for crime guns.
Abstract
These national findings are based on 64,637 crime gun traces submitted to the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) in calendar year 1999. These trace requests came from 32 cities with a population of 250,000 or more that are participating in ATF's Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative, which focuses ATF special agent and inspector resources on reducing youth gun violence. This effort includes providing ATF investigators and their State and local counterparts with more facts about how violent youth obtain guns by tracing all crime guns with the National Tracing Center. In 1999 approximately 9 percent of crime guns were recovered from juveniles (ages 17 and under), and approximately 34 percent of crime guns were recovered from youth (ages 18-24). Approximately 57 percent of crime guns were recovered from adults (ages 25 and older). Few crime-gun possessors had bought their guns directly from federally licensed gun dealers. Approximately 89 percent of traced crime guns changed hands at least once before recovery by law enforcement agencies as crime guns. Such transfers may have been lawful or unlawful. Notwithstanding that most crime guns were purchased from a licensed gun dealer by someone other than the criminal possessor, many crime guns were recovered soon after their initial purchase. This short time from retail sale to crime suggests illegal diversion or criminal intent associated with the retail purchase from a licensed gun dealer. The median time-to-crime for crime guns traced was 5.7 years, but police recovered many crime guns much more rapidly. More than 40 percent of crime guns recovered from youth were purchased in 1996 or later. Handguns composed 78 percent of all traced crime guns, and semiautomatic pistols accounted for 50 percent of all traced crime guns. ATF is providing officer safety information related to crime guns for the first time this year, in order to assist State and local law enforcement managers in assessing potential departmental safety measures. Trace information on crime gun models from nine cities indicates that the North China Industries SKS 7.62mm rifle, North China Industries MAK90 7.62mm rifle, and the Colt AR15 .223 caliber rifle are encountered more often by law enforcement officers than similar rifles. These rifles, as well as most other rifles, pose an enhanced threat to law enforcement officers because of their ability to penetrate the type of soft body armor typically worn by the average police officer. Two large national gun-trafficking patterns have emerged. The most significant interstate pattern is a south-north pattern along the East Coast, with crime guns first purchased from licensed dealers in the South and recovered by law enforcement agencies from Washington, DC, and large metropolitan areas farther north. 14 tables, 10 figures, and appended trace request form and highlights of the City Reports