NCJ Number
240756
Date Published
2007
Length
46 pages
Annotation
This report examines gun violence and makes recommendations for the reduction of gun violence.
Abstract
This report discusses gun violence issues and makes recommendations for keeping communities safe by improving public understanding about the risks of gun violence, working with community leaders, and reducing easy access to firearms, especially for at-risk individuals; preventing and solving gun crime by stopping the flow of illegal guns, sharing information among jurisdictions, and training officers to respond to gun crimes, including tracing all guns; and keeping police officers safe by reducing the firepower available to criminals, providing protective technologies, and improving training and support for officers in handling guns and situations involving guns and their aftermath. Specific recommendations include: requiring judges and law enforcement to remove guns from situations of domestic violence, as well as from people whose adjudicated mental illness, drug use, or previous criminal record suggests the possibility of violence; requiring that all gun sales take place through Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders with mandatory background checks; enacting an effective ban on military-style assault weapons, armor-piercing handgun ammunition, .50 caliber sniper rifles and other weapons that enable criminals to outgun law enforcement; restoring COPS funding to provide vital resources to state, local and tribal law enforcement; repealing the Tiahrt Amendment, which hinders investigation of illegal gun trafficking taking a stand; destroying guns that come into police possession once their law enforcement use has ended, improving officer training in debriefing suspects and handling crime guns, including tracing all guns; training police officers in tactics that can lessen the possibility that a hostile situation will erupt in violence; mandating safe storage of firearms by private citizens and providing safe facilities where gun owners can store their weapons; and mandating reporting of lost and stolen firearms. Appendixes