Q&A of the Day – How many crimes are committed by legal vs illegal guns?
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Twitter: @brianmuddradio
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Today’s entry...
Brian, can you do research on crimes committed with legal guns and ILLEGAL GUNS. Maybe, how many deaths with legal vs illegal guns
Bottom Line: This is one of the most complicated topics to research for one very specific reason. The definition of a legally owned a firearm varies from state to state. That means that you must pull info from each state & the D.C. and even then, it’s not perfect because not all record keeping indicates whether a firearm was legally or illegally possessed when someone is charged with a crime. With that disclaimer out of the way I can provide some approximations.
The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statics kept active nationwide research on the topic thru 2004. Back then the breakout on crimes committed with the use of a firearm consisted of...
- 52% illegally obtained
- 48% legally obtained
Since then many states, including Florida, have tightened gun laws. As gun laws have tightened – more guns used in crimes have been illegally possessed. The most comprehensive study on the topic more recently was conducted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. What they found was that in the states that had the most lenient guns laws – only about 40% of the guns used were illegally owned. In the states with the strictest laws, about 65% of the guns were illegally owned. So, what are the real takeaways here?
- Most crimes are committed with illegally possessed guns
- State laws do heavily factor into whether a gun is obtained legally or illegally but...
- Would be criminals aren’t less likely to obtain a gun if they can’t purchase one legally – they're simply more likely to obtain it illegally with tougher laws
This jibes with some of the higher profile examples – i.e. Chicago. Illinois has some of the most restrictive gun control policy in the country, yet Chicago usually has the highest homicide rate in the country. There is one big number that stands out as an area that might be positively impacted by reform. Background checks.
These are the top five ways firearms are obtained by criminals:
- #1: Family Member or Friend
- #2: Gun Store
- #3: Pawn Shop
- #4: Flea Market
- #5: Gun Show
If all transfers were subjected to background checks it's possible, even likely, to have an impact given that only 22% of gun transfers take place outside of licensed dealers, however 48% of guns used by criminals do.