In article <9l15qxn@rpi.edu>, lswilfin@mercury.ral.rpi.edu (Lee S Wilfinger) writes: > cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares) writes: >  > >Obnly something like 12% of guns used in crime in the US are purchased  > >from legitimate dealers (and not necessarily by the person who used them > >in the crime).  So we already HAVE that much "gun control." >  > I've seen this mentioned a number of times. I'm curious; what is the > source for this statistic?   The number bounces between 2% and 18%, depending on the study quoted and the type of gun being studied.  Some cites:  ---------------------------------------  A recent BATF study (titled "Protecting America, Yes") surveyed 471 career  criminals and found that only 7% of guns used in violent crimes were purchased from retail dealers.  ---------------------------------------  National Institute of Justice Research in Brief  November 1986                          The Armed Criminal in America                               by James D. Wright  (1) Legitimate firearms retailers play only a minor role as direct     sources of handguns for adult felony offenders.  Only about one-sixth of the gun-owning felons obtained their most recent handguns through a customary retail transaction involving a licensed firearms dealer.  The remainder -- five out of six -- obtained them via informal, off-the-record transactions involving friends and associates, family members, and various black market outlets.  The means of acquisition from these informal sources included cash purchase, swaps and trades, borrowing and renting, and often theft.  The criminal handgun market is overwhelmingly dominated by informal transactions and theft as mechanisms of supply.  ---------------------------------------  INDEPENDENCE ISSUE PAPER No. 4- 91 Independence Institute 14142 Denver West Parkway #101 Golden, CO 80401  (303) 279-6536                WHY GUN WAITING PERIODS THREATEN PUBLIC SAFETY                              By David B. Kopel       The basic problem with waiting periods is shown by a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms study of gun dealer sales in Des Moines and Greenville. The study found that about one to two percent of sales were to dangerous criminals.[51]  In short, waiting periods have no statistically noticeable impact on any type of crime because only a tiny fraction of crime guns are purchased at retail by ineligible buyers.  51. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Assistant Director of Criminal Enforcement, Memorandum to Director, July 10, 1975 (Greenville survey; of 20,047 names submitted to FBI for record checks, 68 had felony convictions; of those, 41 had not been represented by counsel at their conviction or who committed crimes in the distant past; twenty-seven buyers were prosecuted) (of the 1.3% of buyers selected for prosecution, .9% had non-violent felony convictions, and .4% had violent convictions). Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Assistant Director for Criminal Enforcement, memorandum to Director, May 8, 1975 (of 374 records checked, 39 were purchasers with felony records who were not appropriate for prosecution because of age or non-violent nature of felony; six purchasers were prosecuted).  ---------------------------------------  INDEPENDENCE ISSUE PAPER No. 12-91                            THE ASSAULT WEAPON PANIC:                       POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" TAKES AIM                             AT THE CONSTITUTION                        By Eric Morgan and David Kopel       Testimony before Congress revealed that most "assault weapons" in the hands of criminals were obtained through illegal channels.{97}  The testimony is consistent with the National Institute of Justice's research findings based on studies of felons in state prisons. The NU study, authored by sociologists James D. Wright and Peter Rossi found that only sixteen percent of criminals had obtained their most recent handgun from a gun store. (The figures included purchases by legal surrogates, rather than directly by the criminal.) Wright and Rossi, who had begun their research as firm proponents of gun control, concluded that no set of controls on retail purchases, and probably not even full scale gun prohibition, would reduce criminal use of guns. Wright and Rossi suggested that lawmakers concerned about gun crime directly target the black market in criminal guns, and leave the legitimate retail market alone.{98}   Not surprisingly, Wright believes that the consequences of current "assault weapon" legislation on street violence are likely to be ineffective.{99}   He warns that gun controls aimed at ordinary citizens are less likely to reduce the pool of criminal guns than to provide organized crime with lucrative new business.{100}  6.   _See, _e.g., The Anti-drug, Assault Weapons Limitation Act of 1989. S. Rep. No. 160, 101st. Cong., 1st. Sess. 6-8 (1989) [hereinafter SENATE REPORT] (introduced by Senator DeConcini to reduce semiautomatic firearms abuse by drug traffickers and violent criminals); Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989, CAL. PENAL CODE $$ 12275-12290 (West 1990) [hereinafter Roberti- Roos]; MD. ANN. CODE art. 27 $$ 442,481E (1989) (placing greater restrictions on 17 varieties of "assault weapons," and providing punishments for failure to comply or attempts to evade).  97.  SENATE REPORT, _supra note 6, at 17.  98.  James Wright & Peter Rossi, ARMED AND CONSIDERED DANGEROUS: A SURVEY OF FELONS AND THEIR FIREARMS (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1986).  99.  _Lock _and _Load _for _the _Gunfight _of _'89, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REP., March 27, 1989, at 9 [hereinafter _Gunfight]. Wright also said, "If criminals can get all the drugs they want, they can get guns, too." _Id.  100. James Wright, "Second Thoughts About Gun Control," 91 _The _Public _Interest (Spring 1988), at 30-3 1.