FBI reports:
According to the 1997 Survey of State Prison Inmates, among those possessing a gun, the source of the gun was from –
- a flea market or gun show for fewer than 2%
- a retail store or pawnshop for about 12%
- family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source for 80%
In other words, it ain’t legal purchases from firearms dealers in legal shops or gun shows that criminals use.”
After 1996, less than 10% of nonfatal violent crimes involved firearms.
Only 2% of prison inmates used a military-style semiautomatic gun.
“Offenders armed with handguns committed one in every eight violent crimes–rape, robbery and assault–measured by BJS’s National Crime Victimization Survey. The other violent crime victims were attacked or threatened by offenders who were either unarmed or were armed with such weapons as rocks, sticks, knives or other types of firearms. The most common violent crime, simple assault, by definition does not involve the use of a weapon.” That is, going after firearms only goes after 12.5% of the violent offenses.
Recidivism
* Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.
* The 272,111 offenders discharged in 1994 accounted for nearly 4,877,000 arrest charges over their recorded careers.
* Within 3 years of release, 2.5% of released rapists were rearrested for another rape, and 1.2% of those who had served time for homicide were arrested for a new homicide.
* Sex offenders were less likely than non-sex offenders to be rearrested for any offense –– 43 percent of sex offenders versus 68 percent of non-sex offenders.
* Sex offenders were about four times more likely than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another sex crime after their discharge from prison –– 5.3 percent of sex offenders versus 1.3 percent of non-sex offenders.
In other words, keep illegal guns out of the hands of urban youth of gangbanger age, especially those who have immediate family that have been incarcerated, and firearm ownership becomes statistically insignificant. The best way to keep the guns away would be to keep the felons who have used illegal firearms in prison.