For Immediate Release: January 28, 1998
Contact: Carole Gan
Phone: (916) 734-9047
Email: [email protected]
STUDY LINKS FIRST TIME CRIMINAL ACTIVITY WITH LEGAL PURCHASE OF HANDGUNS
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) ã Young adults who legally buy small, inexpensive handguns are more likely to commit a crime after the purchase of the gun even if they had no criminal record, say investigators at UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.
Garen Wintemute, an emergency room physician and public health epidemiologist at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center, published the findings in the January issue of the Journal of Trauma, which was mailed to subscribers this week.
Young adults have among the highest rates of weapons offenses and other forms of serious criminal activity in the United States. Previous studies have shown that small, inexpensive handguns are among the weapons of choice for young adults with a criminal history, but these studies have focused on subjects who were convicted felons or were incarcerated juveniles. The UC Davis study is the first to investigate the preferences of young adults who purchase guns legally and to link choice of gun type with future criminal activity.
≥For years there has been anecdotal evidence to support the view that small, inexpensive handguns play a role in crimes committed by first offenders,≤ says Wintemute. ≥This study is the first to rely on objective, comparative data to determine whether the purchase of small, inexpensive handguns, the so-called Saturday Night Specials, is a valid indicator for later criminal activity.≤
Of the 31,121 individuals aged 21 to 25 years of age who passed background checks and purchased handguns in California in 1988, 90 percent had no previous criminal history. But those who purchased small, inexpensive handguns were 70
percent more likely than purchasers of other handguns to be charged with their first criminal offense. Moreover, young adults with no prior criminal record who purchased these handguns were 90 percent more likely to be charged with an offense involving violence or a weapon in the three years following their purchase.
Gun purchasers with a previous criminal history, including those with multiple previous charges for felony violence, did not consistently show a preference for any particular gun type in this study. Among those with a previous criminal history, those who purchased small, inexpensive handguns were only moderately (32 percent) more likely than those who purchased other guns to commit new crimes, and were no more likely to commit new gun or violent offenses.
≥Criminal activity among young adults who are legal purchasers of handguns is not uncommon, even if they have no prior criminal record,≤ says Wintemute. ≥For the 90 percent of purchasers in this age group who have no such record, the purchase of a small, inexpensive handgun is associated with a substantial increase in risk for a first adult offense, and particularly an offense involving guns or violence.≤
The UC Davis study was based on firearms data from the California Department of Justice, which maintains a computerized registry of all approved purchases of firearms made through licensed firearms dealers. From the group of more than 31,000 young, legal gun purchasers, the researchers identified a smaller group of 5,360 individuals to evaluate the criminal activity levels both before the purchase of the gun and over the next three years to identify patterns of handgun preferences. A total of 2,765 individuals with a previous history of criminal activity at the time of their gun purchase and 2,595 with no previous criminal history were included in this evaluation.
Although the study is based on historical data about gun purchasers and criminal activity levels--the most recent years for which complete statistics were available at the beginning of the project--the results provide an accurate reflection of current purchasing preferences among young adults and later criminal activity. The study also provides valuable, new information to government policy makers and law enforcement agencies for the development of strategies aimed at reducing crime. Some of these measures include legislation to eliminate the manufacture and sale of small, inexpensive handguns, which have become increasingly more powerful in their ability to inflict damage to the human body over the past few years.
The study is the latest in a series of reports by the Violence Prevention Research Program. The study is funded in part by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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