re my gun is like my american express card in article l qxn rpi edu lswilfin mercury ral rpi edu lee s wilfinger writes cdt sw stratus com c d tavares writes obnly something like of guns used in crime in the us are purchased from legitimate dealers and not necessarily by the person who used them in the crime so we already have that much gun control i ve seen this mentioned a number of times i m curious what is the source for this statistic the number bounces between and depending on the study quoted and the type of gun being studied some cites a recent batf study titled protecting america yes surveyed career criminals and found that only of guns used in violent crimes were purchased from retail dealers national institute of justice research in brief november the armed criminal in america by james d wright legitimate firearms retailers play only a minor role as direct sources of handguns for adult felony offenders only about one sixth of the gun owning felons obtained their most recent handguns through a customary retail transaction involving a licensed firearms dealer the remainder five out of six obtained them via informal off the record transactions involving friends and associates family members and various black market outlets the means of acquisition from these informal sources included cash purchase swaps and trades borrowing and renting and often theft the criminal handgun market is overwhelmingly dominated by informal transactions and theft as mechanisms of supply independence issue paper no independence institute denver west parkway golden co why gun waiting periods threaten public safety by david b kopel the basic problem with waiting periods is shown by a bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms study of gun dealer sales in des moines and greenville the study found that about one to two percent of sales were to dangerous criminals in short waiting periods have no statistically noticeable impact on any type of crime because only a tiny fraction of crime guns are purchased at retail by ineligible buyers bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms assistant director of criminal enforcement memorandum to director july greenville survey of names submitted to fbi for record checks had felony convictions of those had not been represented by counsel at their conviction or who committed crimes in the distant past twenty seven buyers were prosecuted of the of buyers selected for prosecution had non violent felony convictions and had violent convictions bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms assistant director for criminal enforcement memorandum to director may of records checked were purchasers with felony records who were not appropriate for prosecution because of age or non violent nature of felony six purchasers were prosecuted independence issue paper no the assault weapon panic political correctness takes aim at the constitution by eric morgan and david kopel testimony before congress revealed that most assault weapons in the hands of criminals were obtained through illegal channels the testimony is consistent with the national institute of justice s research findings based on studies of felons in state prisons the nu study authored by sociologists james d wright and peter rossi found that only sixteen percent of criminals had obtained their most recent handgun from a gun store the figures included purchases by legal surrogates rather than directly by the criminal wright and rossi who had begun their research as firm proponents of gun control concluded that no set of controls on retail purchases and probably not even full scale gun prohibition would reduce criminal use of guns wright and rossi suggested that lawmakers concerned about gun crime directly target the black market in criminal guns and leave the legitimate retail market alone not surprisingly wright believes that the consequences of current assault weapon legislation on street violence are likely to be ineffective he warns that gun controls aimed at ordinary citizens are less likely to reduce the pool of criminal guns than to provide organized crime with lucrative new business see e g the anti drug assault weapons limitation act of s rep no st cong st sess hereinafter senate report introduced by senator deconcini to reduce semiautomatic firearms abuse by drug traffickers and violent criminals roberti roos assault weapons control act of cal penal code west hereinafter roberti roos md ann code art e placing greater restrictions on varieties of assault weapons and providing punishments for failure to comply or attempts to evade senate report supra note at james wright peter rossi armed and considered dangerous a survey of felons and their firearms new york aldine de gruyter lock and load for the gunfight of u s news world rep march at hereinafter gunfight wright also said if criminals can get all the drugs they want they can get guns too id james wright second thoughts about gun control the public interest spring at cdt rocket sw stratus com if you believe that i speak for my company or cdt vos stratus com write today for my special investors packet
