Facts and Resources:
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: Campaign Against Illegal Guns
http://www.bradycampaign.org/action/trafficking/
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence: Gun Show Loophole
http://www.csgv.org/issues/illegalgunmarkets/gunshowloop/
Closing Illegal Gun Markets
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
http://www.csgv.org/issues/illegalmarkets/index.cfm
Connecticut Against Gun Violence: The Illegal Gun Market
http://www.cagv.org/issues.htm
Freedom States Alliance
www.freedomstatesalliance.org
Mayors Against Illegal Guns
http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org
How Guns Move from Legal to Illegal Gun Markets:
Guns move from the legal to the illegal market through a variety of predictable, and preventable, avenues.
Unscrupulous Licensed Gun Dealers: Crime gun trace data shows that most gun dealers are honest, however, there are a handful of unscrupulous licensed gun dealers who are willing to look the other way. Unfortunately, this small percentage of gun dealers sell a large percentage of guns that end up being used in crimes. ATF data shows that just one percent of gun dealers are responsible for selling 57 percent of crime guns traced. And while most gun dealers never have crime guns traced back to them, consider the following dealers in New England:
- Between 1988-1996 a gun dealer in Smithfield, Rhode Island sold 36 guns involved in weapon offenses, 17 guns involved in drug deals, 10 gun used in assaults and 5 guns used in murders.
- During this same period a gun dealer in Georgia, Vermont sold 173 crime guns including guns used in 8 murders.
Straw Purchases also fuel the illegal gun market. A straw purchase is where a person with a clean record, who would typically pass a background check, buys a gun for someone who is prohibited by law from possessing a gun.
- In April 2006 a woman from Bangor, Maine was sentenced for being a straw purchaser. She bought two guns for her boyfriend who then resold them in Boston. One of the guns was used in a drive-by shooting in Boston.
- In January 2005 a convicted felon from Massachusetts pleaded guilty to soliciting two women from New Hampshire to buy guns for him which he then resold in Boston.
Private Sales, where no background checks are run and no records are kept are also a source for illegal guns.
- In May 2006, Michael Fowler of Lynn, Massachusetts pleaded guilty to being an unlicensed firearms dealer. The majority of the 28 guns Fowler was charged with trafficking were purchased in Maine through ads in Uncle Henry's Swap and Sell Guide. These were private sales with no background check, no records kept, no questions asked. 15 of these guns have not been recovered and are still on the streets in Massachusetts.
- In October 2006, a 35-year-old Manchester, New Hampshire police officer and father of two was shot and killed in the line of duty. The man accused of the shooting has a long criminal history, would not have passed a background check and could not have purchased a gun legally. The gun is believed to have been obtained through a private sale.
