Survey Research
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67
68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84
85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101
102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115
A number of inmate surveys have documented the wide variety of
sources of guns available to criminals and youth. Table 4-1 summarizes
some of the basic findings from three of the most widely cited of these
surveys. Precise patterns are sometimes difficult to discern because different
definitions and questions are used to elicit similar information. Nevertheless,
survey research has documented a wide variety of sources of guns and
methods of firearm acquisition used by criminals and youth. Guns referenced
in these surveys come from a variety of sources, including family
members, friends, the black market, and direct theft.
Wright and Rossi’s (1994) 1992 survey of 1,874 convicted felons serving
time in 11 prisons in 10 states throughout the United States, for example,
revealed a complex market of both formal and informal transactions, cash
and noncash exchange, and new and used handguns. Felons reported acquiring
a majority of their guns from nonretail, informal sources. Only 21 percent
of the respondents obtained the handgun from a retail outlet, with other
sources including family and friends (44 percent) and the street (that is, the
black market), drug dealers, and fences (26 percent). Moreover, the majority
of handguns were not purchased with cash. Of the surveyed felons, 43 percent
acquired their most recent handgun through a cash purchase, while 32
percent stole their most recent handgun. The remainder acquired their most
recent handgun by renting or borrowing it, as a gift, or through a trade.
Finally, almost two-thirds of the most recent handguns acquired by felons
were reported as used guns, and one-third were reported as new guns. Illicit
firearms markets dealt primarily in secondhand guns and constituted largely
an in-state, rather than out-of-state, market.
78
TABLE 4-1 Sources and Method of Handgun Acquisition by Criminals
Method of Firearm Acquisition as Source of Firearm as Reported by
Study Measure Reported by Prison Inmates Prison Inmates
Bureau of Justice Handgun possessed 27% retail purchase 31% family/friends
Statistics (1993) by inmate 9% direct theft 28% black market/fence
27% retail outlet
Wright and Rossi Most recent 43% cash purchase 44% family and friends
(1994) handgun— 32% direct theft 26% black market/fence
incarcerated 24% rent/borrow, trade, or gift 21% retail outlet
felons Estimated 40-70% directly or
indirectly through theft
Sheley and Wright Most recent 32% straw purchase 90% from friend, family, street, drug
(1993) handgun— 12% theft dealer, drug addict, house or car
incarcerated
juveniles
Results from a 1991 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) survey of some
2,280 handgun-using state prison inmates support Wright and Rossi’s observation
that the illicit firearms market exploited by criminals is heavily
dominated by informal, off-the-record transactions, either with friends and
family or with various street sources (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1993).
The 1991 survey found that only 27 percent of the inmates who used a
handgun in crime that led to their incarceration reported they obtained the
handgun by purchase from a retail outlet. In contrast to the Wright and
Rossi (1994) findings, the BJS survey found that only 9 percent of inmates
who used a handgun in a crime had stolen it. More recently, Decker and
colleagues’ (1997) analysis of arrestee interview data (i.e., the Arrestee
Drug Abuse Monitoring Survey) revealed that 13 percent of arrestees admitted
to having a stolen gun. Among juvenile males, one-quarter admitted
to theft of a gun (Decker et al., 1997).
Sheley and Wright’s (1993) survey of high school students and incarcerated
juveniles suggested that informal sources of guns were even more
important to juveniles.1 More than 90 percent of incarcerated juveniles
obtained their most recent handgun from a friend, a family member, the
street, a drug dealer, or a drug addict, or by taking it from a house or car
(Sheley and Wright, 1993:6). Sheley and Wright (1995) found that 12
percent of juvenile inmates had obtained their most recent handgun by theft
and 32 percent of juvenile inmates had asked someone, typically a friend or
family member, to purchase a gun for them in a gun shop, pawnshop, or
other retail outlet. When juveniles sold or traded their guns, they generally
did so within the same network from which they obtained them—family
members, friends, and street sources (Sheley and Wright, 1995).
BATF Firearms Trace Data
BATF firearms trace data, described in Chapter 3, have been used to
document that firearms recovered by law enforcement have characteristics
suggesting they were illegally diverted from legitimate firearms commerce
to criminals and juveniles (see, e.g., Zimring, 1976; Kennedy et al., 1996;
Wachtel, 1998; Cook and Braga, 2001). Trace data, reflecting firearms
recovered by police and other law enforcement agencies, have revealed that
a noteworthy proportion of guns had a “time to crime” (the length of time
from the first retail sale to recovery by the police) of a few months or a few
years. For example, Cook and Braga (2001) report that 32 percent of
traceable handguns recovered in 38 cities participating in BATF’s Youth
1In addition to the incarcerated juvenile sample described above, Sheley and Wright also
surveyed 758 students enrolled at 10 high schools in 5 large cities that were proximate to the
juvenile correctional facilities they surveyed between 1990 and 1991.
Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative (YCGII) were less than 3 years old. Cook
and Braga (2001) also report that only 18 percent of these new guns were
recovered in the possession of the first retail purchaser, suggesting that
many of these guns were quickly diverted to criminal hands. Recovered
crime guns are relatively new when compared with guns in public circulation.
Pierce et al. (2001) found that guns manufactured between 1996 and
1998 represented about 14 percent of guns in private hands, but they
accounted for 34 percent of traced crime guns recovered in 1999.
Wright and Rossi (1994) found that criminals typically use guns from
within-state sources, whereas the 1999 YCGII trace reports suggest that the
percentage of crime guns imported from out of state is closely linked to the
stringency of local firearm controls. While 62 percent of traced YCGII
firearms were first purchased from licensed dealers in the state in which the
guns were recovered (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, 2000c),
this fraction was appreciably lower in northeastern cities with tight control—
for example, Boston, New York, and Jersey City—where less than
half of the traceable firearms were sold at retail within the state. A noteworthy
number of firearms originated from southern states with less restrictive
legislation, for example, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida
(Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, 2000c).
Moreover, by examining the time-to-crime of out-of-state handguns in
the trace data, Cook and Braga (2001) concluded that the process by which
such handguns reach criminals in these tight-control cities is not one of
gradual diffusion moving with interstate migrants (as suggested by
Blackman, 1997-1998, and Kleck, 1999); rather, the handguns that make it
into these cities are imported directly after the out-of-state retail sale. In
contrast, Birmingham (AL), Gary (IN), Houston (TX), Miami (FL), New
Orleans (LA), and San Antonio (TX), had at least 80 percent of their
firearms first sold at retail in the state in which the city was located (Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, 2000c). Kleck (1999) attempts to explain
the interstate movement of crime guns by simply observing that,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 9.4 percent of the United States
population moved their residence across state lines between 1985 and 1990.
These migration patterns, however, do not necessarily explain the big differences
in import and export patterns across source and destination states
as well as the overrepresentation of new guns that show up in tight-control
cities from other loose-control states.
BATF Investigation Data
While analyses of BATF trace data can document characteristics of
crime guns that suggest illegal diversions from legitimate firearms commerce,
trace data analyses cannot describe the illegal pathways through
which crime guns travel from legal commerce to its ultimate recovery by
law enforcement. BATF also conducts numerous investigations both in the
course of monitoring FFL and distributor compliance with regulations and
following detection of gun trafficking offenses. Analyses of BATF firearms
trafficking investigation data provide insights on the workings of illegal
firearms markets (see, e.g., Moore, 1981; Wachtel, 1998). To date, the
most representative look at firearms trafficking through a comprehensive
review of investigation data was completed by BATF in 2000. This study
examined all 1,530 investigations made between July 1996 and December
1998 by BATF special agents in all BATF field divisions in the United
States2 (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, 2000d). They involved
the diversion of more than 84,000 guns. As indicated in Table 4-2, the
study revealed a variety of pathways through which guns were illegally
diverted to criminals and juveniles.
TABLE 4-2 Volume of Firearms Diverted Through Trafficking Channels
Total
Source N(%) Guns Mean Median
Firearms trafficked by
straw purchaser or
straw purchasing ring 695 (47%) 25,741 37.0 14
Trafficking in firearms by
unregulated private sellersa 301 (20%) 22,508 74.8 10
Trafficking in firearms at
gun shows and flea markets 198 (13%) 25,862 130.6 40
Trafficking in firearms stolen
from federal firearms licensees 209 (14%) 6,084 29.1 18
Trafficking in firearms stolen
from residence 154 (10%) 3,306 21.5 7
Firearms trafficked by federal
firearms licensees,
including pawnbroker 114 (8%) 40,365 354.1 42
Trafficking in firearms stolen
from common carrier 31 (2%) 2,062 66.5 16
aAs distinct from straw purchasers and other traffickers.
NOTE: N = 1,470 investigations. Since firearms may be trafficked along multiple channels,
an investigation may be included in more than one category. This table excludes 60 investigations
from the total pool of 1,530 in which the total number of trafficked firearms was
unknown.
SOURCE: Adapted from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (2000d).
2This does not include simple Armed Career Criminal or Felon in Possession cases.
The BATF study found that 43 percent of the trafficking investigations
involved the illegal diversion of 10 guns or fewer but confirmed the existence
of large trafficking operations, including two cases involving the diversion
of over 10,000 guns. Corrupt FFLs accounted for only 9 percent of the
trafficking investigations but more than half of the guns diverted in the pool
of investigations. Violations by FFLs in these investigations included “off
paper” sales, false entries in record books, and transfers to prohibited
persons. Nearly half of the investigations involved firearms trafficked by
straw purchasers, either directly or indirectly. Trafficking investigations
involving straw purchasers averaged a relatively small number of firearms
per investigation but collectively accounted for 26,000 guns. Firearms were
diverted by traffickers at gun shows and flea markets in 14 percent of the
investigations, and firearms stolen from FFLs, residences, and common
carriers were involved in more than a quarter of the investigations.