Has anyone seen this report.
http://www.apbnews.com/NEWSCENTER/B...ntraces1201_01.html?s=syn.daily_guntraces1201
Dec. 1, 2000
By James Gordon Meek
WASHINGTON (APBnews.com) -- Some gun policy experts are calling for states to give new consideration to one-gun-per-month laws in the wake of a government report showing almost a quarter of all guns used in the commission of a crime recovered in 1999 were originally part of multiple purchases.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' annual report on gun traces released Thursday also shows that 11 percent of all guns recovered were legally bought by offenders from federally licensed firearms dealers.
That 22 percent of crime guns last year stemmed from legal multiple gun purchases is a "remarkable finding," said Jon Vernick, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
"It suggests the potential value of one-gun-per-month laws," he said.
Four states have limits
Currently, four states -- Maryland, California, South Carolina and Virginia -- have laws that limit gun purchases to one per month.
The Virginia version of the law, for example, was passed almost a decade ago after the state became notorious for "bulk" gun buys by traffickers who funneled firearms north, where gun laws tend to be more strict.
But National Rifle Association spokeswoman Kelley Whitley said new laws that limit the number of guns sold to an individual aren't necessarily the correct response to the ATF findings.
"I don't know if there's ever been any proof in any of these states that one-gun-per-month laws have had any effect on crime," Whitley said.
'Straw' purchases
The majority of crime guns traced by authorities are not stolen but are bought either at gun shows or from illegal gun traffickers who use "straw" buyers to purchase handguns, said ATF spokesman Special Agent Bill Kinsella. He referred to the practice by traffickers of using someone without a criminal record who can pass a federal background check to purchase guns in bulk, which are then sold illegally.
"Before the first report, we in law enforcement believed that most [crime guns] were stolen and there was no point in tracing them," he said.
Cheap guns favored by youths
The report is included in the third Youth Gun Crime Interdiction Initiative and includes data on 64,000 crime guns from 38 U.S. cities that were traced by the ATF in 1999.
The agency said 43 percent of those guns were in the possession of youths under 25, and 9 percent of those were taken from juveniles under 17.
The most commonly recovered gun makes among all offenders were cheap handguns manufactured by Bryco Arms, Lorcin Engineering and Ruger.
Half were semiautomatic pistols, and 50 percent of the total also were newer firearms made after 1993, according to the ATF report.
Of the guns traced, 15 percent were recovered within one year of the first retail purchase; 32 percent were recovered within three years.
The ATF said the Bryco Arms and Ruger handguns had the shortest time from purchase to crime rate, which was less than three years. For juveniles, the median time from purchase to commission in a crime in nine cities was 1.6 years for both the Bryco and Lorcin Engineering 9 mm handguns.
Guns flow north
Also mapped out in the report were two South-to-North gun trafficking routes that the ATF said come from the southeastern United States and extend to Memphis, Tenn.; St. Louis, and Chicago in one direction and Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City in the other.
But the ATF also reported that 62 percent of the traced guns never left the states where they were originally purchased.
http://www.apbnews.com/NEWSCENTER/B...ntraces1201_01.html?s=syn.daily_guntraces1201
Dec. 1, 2000
By James Gordon Meek
WASHINGTON (APBnews.com) -- Some gun policy experts are calling for states to give new consideration to one-gun-per-month laws in the wake of a government report showing almost a quarter of all guns used in the commission of a crime recovered in 1999 were originally part of multiple purchases.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' annual report on gun traces released Thursday also shows that 11 percent of all guns recovered were legally bought by offenders from federally licensed firearms dealers.
That 22 percent of crime guns last year stemmed from legal multiple gun purchases is a "remarkable finding," said Jon Vernick, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
"It suggests the potential value of one-gun-per-month laws," he said.
Four states have limits
Currently, four states -- Maryland, California, South Carolina and Virginia -- have laws that limit gun purchases to one per month.
The Virginia version of the law, for example, was passed almost a decade ago after the state became notorious for "bulk" gun buys by traffickers who funneled firearms north, where gun laws tend to be more strict.
But National Rifle Association spokeswoman Kelley Whitley said new laws that limit the number of guns sold to an individual aren't necessarily the correct response to the ATF findings.
"I don't know if there's ever been any proof in any of these states that one-gun-per-month laws have had any effect on crime," Whitley said.
'Straw' purchases
The majority of crime guns traced by authorities are not stolen but are bought either at gun shows or from illegal gun traffickers who use "straw" buyers to purchase handguns, said ATF spokesman Special Agent Bill Kinsella. He referred to the practice by traffickers of using someone without a criminal record who can pass a federal background check to purchase guns in bulk, which are then sold illegally.
"Before the first report, we in law enforcement believed that most [crime guns] were stolen and there was no point in tracing them," he said.
Cheap guns favored by youths
The report is included in the third Youth Gun Crime Interdiction Initiative and includes data on 64,000 crime guns from 38 U.S. cities that were traced by the ATF in 1999.
The agency said 43 percent of those guns were in the possession of youths under 25, and 9 percent of those were taken from juveniles under 17.
The most commonly recovered gun makes among all offenders were cheap handguns manufactured by Bryco Arms, Lorcin Engineering and Ruger.
Half were semiautomatic pistols, and 50 percent of the total also were newer firearms made after 1993, according to the ATF report.
Of the guns traced, 15 percent were recovered within one year of the first retail purchase; 32 percent were recovered within three years.
The ATF said the Bryco Arms and Ruger handguns had the shortest time from purchase to crime rate, which was less than three years. For juveniles, the median time from purchase to commission in a crime in nine cities was 1.6 years for both the Bryco and Lorcin Engineering 9 mm handguns.
Guns flow north
Also mapped out in the report were two South-to-North gun trafficking routes that the ATF said come from the southeastern United States and extend to Memphis, Tenn.; St. Louis, and Chicago in one direction and Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City in the other.
But the ATF also reported that 62 percent of the traced guns never left the states where they were originally purchased.
