How firearms move from legal purchase to criminal use

“Tracking the movement of firearms from legal purchase to use in crimes can help inform prevention of firearm injuries and deaths,” explained Hannah S. Laqueur, senior author of the study. Laqueur is an associate professor in the UC Davis Health Department of Emergency Medicine.

Gun characteristics associated with weapons being recovered at a crime include:

• Lost and stolen
• Cheap (made by a low-cost manufacturer)
• Semiautomatic
• Large and medium caliber (compared to small caliber)

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