The average gun-wielding criminal studied expected to have no difficulty in obtaining a gun within a day after release from prison. The choices of where to obtain a handgun, among those categorized as handgun abusers, ranged downward from friends, to the street, to fences, the blackmarket and their drug dealers. Licensed gun dealers do not figure high in the plans of the felons surveyed. And pawnbrokers accounted for only 6 percent of the mentions of possible sources for guns. That low number supports the findings of BATF studies showing that pawnshops were not disproportionately used by criminals who illegally obtained firearms through licensed dealers.
Theft is certainly a problem, but other unregulated acquisition is even more popular with felons.
Criminals are thieves, however, and guns are clearly among the items stolen, mostly to sell rather than for personal use. The criminals surveyed reported committing a great number of thefts, with a large percentage stealing guns from regulated sources. These data might suggest that a reasonable policy conclusion would be to make theft of a firearm, especially more than one, a felony regardless of the value of the gun or guns stolen. Only 5 percent admitted to owning a .25, although this particular model accounts for a 13 percent domestic market share in handguns purchased by U.S. citizens, accoring to the earlier Wright-Rossi book, Under the Gun. The same crimes would still be committed, but with potentially more lethal firearms.