February 19, 2020 – In Breaking News – Fox News
Mass shootings all too routinely hit the headlines across the United States.
But what rarely makes a blip on the news cycle are the individual acts of gun violence that permeate the social fabric – with almost 500,000 violent crimes committed with a gun annually, according to the National Institute of Justice.
On average, just under 40,000 people each year die across the country in a gun-related death.
So, where do criminals typically buy their guns?
And do most criminals seek out their weapons of choice through illicit means?
(Learn More. Authorities say people banned from owning guns in the US are getting hold of homemade weapons which are untraceable. Courtesy of Sky News and YouTube. Posted on Feb 1, 2019.)
“The majority of firearms used in criminal activity are obtained illegally,” said David Chianese, a correspondent at Law Enforcement Today, published author and former NYPD detective.
“Stricter or additional gun laws do not reduce gun violence.”
A 2019 survey conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that some 43 percent of criminals had bought their firearms on the black market, 6 percent acquired them via theft, and 10 percent made a retail purchase – 0.8 percent purchased a weapon from a gun show.
In 11 percent of cases, the criminal had someone else buy a gun for them – known as a straw purchase – while an additional 15 percent got guns from a friend or relative.
Some 12 percent of weapons found on a crime scene had been brought there by someone else.
A recent national survey of prison inmates aged 18 to 40, published by Preventative Medicine, found that only one in 10 bought the firearm involved in the act that resulted in them being jailed.
Law enforcement and security experts also emphasized the importance of distinguishing between “criminals” and “mass killers.”
“Statistics show that those individuals committing ‘mass killings’ during ‘active shooter’ events do so utilizing weapons that have been obtained legally by themselves or a friend or family member,” observed Charles Marino, CEO of Sentinel Security Solutions.
“Statistics show that those individuals committing what is known as ‘street crimes’ are typically doing so by utilizing weapons that have been initially stolen and may have further traded hands in the black market.”
(Learn More. 9Wants to Know analyzed data in Colorado and found at least 800 guns were stolen out of cars in Denver from 2008 to 2015. Many were later used in more violent crimes. Courtesy of 9NEWS and YouTube. Posted on Nov 22, 2017.)
An official with the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Explosives (ATF) – the federal agency under the Department of Justice (DOJ) tasked with tracking and recovering trafficked weapons – told Fox News that “guns enter illegal commerce through one of three ways.”
The first is by private transactions in which guns bought at gun shows, flea markets or through private sales are later sold to prohibited persons.
Continue reading… Where do criminals really get their guns?
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