Here's the link.
It analyzes firearms found at crime scenes in California to try and find out how those firearms got there, and if any conclusions can be drawn.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...&cvid=2d8066767c6343739e93f608074ee908&ei=69#
A very high number were reported lost or stolen.
This is low hanging fruit.
Buyer characteristics associated with guns being recovered at a crime include:
- First-time purchasers
- Younger, female, Black, Hispanic, Native American or Pacific Islander or other race/ethnicity (versus white)
- People who bought more than 12 guns in a year
- A history of arrests during the past 10 years (gun crime, intoxication, major property crime and major violent crime)
- Those who lived in a more socially vulnerable census tract
Dealer characteristics associated with guns being recovered at a crime include:
- Average sales per year
- Percentage of transactions that were administrative denials
- Percentage of sales that were pawns or pawn redemptions in the previous calendar year
- Percentage of sales in the past calendar year that became crime guns in the next calendar year
The study noted some similarities to what researchers had discovered earlier.
"We were able to identify that associations found 20 years ago are still relevant today—cheap, semiautomatic, and larger caliber handguns are more likely to be recovered in crimes," said Sonia L. Robinson, first author of the study. Robinson is an epidemiologist and a research data analyst at VPRP.
"We found that several additional factors were associated with firearm recovery—specifically, the purchaser having a previous criminal history and a firearm being reported lost or stolen."
The researchers also identified factors that decreased the likelihood of a gun ending up in a crime. These include:
- Dealers with more than 20% of their gun sales to police in the past calendar year
- Guns that had any previous law enforcement holds
- Guns transferred between family members
The researchers note that the study's strength is the size and thoroughness of the database, with more than 8 million firearm transactions from 1996 to 2021, plus information on each transaction type, dealer, and purchaser, including their prior criminal history and records of purchase. A limitation is that the study only examines legal purchases reported on the state's database for gun transactions, known as the Dealer's Record of Sale.
They also note that since a firearm reported lost or stolen is strongly associated with its recovery in a crime, measures to secure firearms from theft or loss should be a primary focus for the prevention of firearm-related crimes moving forward.
"Identifying upstream factors associated with firearm recovery in crimes can inform violence prevention efforts, making communities safer," Robinson said.
