Basic to the debates on gun control is the fact that most violent crime is committed by repeat offenders.  Dealing with recidivism is key to solving violence.

• 71% of gunshot victims had previous arrest records.
• 64% had been convicted of a crime.
• Victims had an average of 11 prior arrests. ^{1, 2}
• 63% of victims had criminal histories and 73% of that group knew their assailant (twice as often as victims without criminal histories). ³
• 74% of homicides during the commission of a felony involve guns. ⁴
• Only 25% of victims and 13% of perps did not show any evidence of engaging in criminal/deviant lifestyles (i.e., prior arrests, gang mem­bership, and/or drug dealing) prior the homicide. ⁵
• Recidivism is exceptionally high among criminals with previous gun-related charges, 70% higher than for non-gun first offenders. ⁶

Most gun violence is between criminals with collateral damage. This should be the public policy focus.

Myth: Gun violence is widespread in America

From “Assessing the interaction between offender and victim criminal lifestyles & homicide type.”

Fact: Misuse of guns is highly centralized in a few major metro areas. Fifteen out of 3,124 counties account for 25% of the gun homicides. And within these counties, violence is highly concentrated within specific neighborhoods that typically are street gang territories.

Fact: “Gang homicides are more likely to occur in public settings, to involve a firearm … domestic homicides are more likely to occur in the residence of the victim and/or offender, are less likely to be committed with a gun.” ⁷

Fact: “At least 75 percent of the [homicide] victims and 87 percent of the offenders engaged in some type of criminal/deviant lifestyle.” hence, only 25% of victims and 13% of offenders did not show any evidence of engaging in criminal/deviant lifestyles prior the homicide. ⁸

Fact: 52% of homicide victims and 50% of offenders had a history of violent/weapons offenses and drug arrests. ⁹

Myth: Criminals buy guns at gun stores and gun shows

Fact: Less than 1% of crime guns are acquired at gun shows, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. ¹⁰

Fact: In total, about 10-11% of crime guns come from retail sources ¹¹, where background checks are conducted. About 2.3% of guns used in violent crime come from retail sources. ¹²

Fact: Only 7.3% of traced guns were recovered from the individual who first bought the gun. ¹³

Fact: One study ¹⁴of adult offenders living in Chicago or nearby determined that criminals obtain most of their guns through their social network and personal connections. Rarely is the proximate source either direct purchase from a gun store, or even theft. This agrees with other, broader studies of incarcerated felons.

Fact: Another city-wide study, ¹⁵ this one in Pittsburgh, showed that 80% of people illegally carrying guns were prohibited from possessing guns, and that a minimum of 30% of the guns were stolen.

Fact: Other common arrangements include sharing guns and holding guns for others. ¹⁶

Myth: Crime guns come from retail

Fact: The Bureau of Justice statistics concludes that only 10% of crime guns come from retail (purchased by the perpetrator) while 43% come from street sources.

Fact: One academic analysis ¹⁷ could find no state level association between retail sales of guns or changes in crime rates.

Myth: Crime guns are trafficked

Fact: Most guns recovered in crime were retailed in the same state in which they were retailed, and those that move between states mainly do so via household relocation (moving to a neighboring state). ¹⁸

Fact: The time from acquisition to crime is short (two months) but the “time to crime” for recovered guns is typically 9.2 years. ¹⁹ This shows the delay as guns migrate from legal to illegal, and/or from state to state.

Myth: Crime guns mainly come from private transactions

Fact: Private party transfers we significantly less likely to result in firearm related violence than guns acquired from other means including retail (aside from pawn shop purchases). ²⁰

Myth: Guns are not a good deterrent to crime

Fact: Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year or 6,849 every day. ²¹ Most often, the gun is never fired and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed.

Fact: Property crime rates are dropping (especially burglaries). The chart shows the legal handgun supply in America (mainly in civilian hands) relative to the property crime rate. ²²

Fact: Every year 400,000  life-threatening violent crimes are prevented using firearms.

Fact: 60% of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they knew the victim was armed. 40% of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they thought the victim might be armed. ²³

Fact: Felons report that they avoid entering houses where people are at home because they fear being shot. ²⁴

Fact: 59% of the burglaries in Britain, which has tough gun control laws, are “hot burglaries” ²⁵ which are burglaries committed while the home is occupied by the owner/renter. By contrast, the U.S., with more lenient gun control laws, has a “hot burglary” rate of only 13%. ²⁶

Fact: Washington DC has essentially banned gun ownership since 1976 ²⁷ and has a murder rate of 56.9 per 100,000. Across the river in Arlington, Virginia, gun ownership is less restricted. There, the murder rate is just 1.6 per 100,000, less than three percent of the Washington, DC rate. ²⁸

Fact: 26% of all retail businesses report keeping a gun on the premises for crime control. ²⁹

Fact: In 1982, Kennesaw, GA passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate dropped 89% the following year. ³⁰

Fact: A survey of felons revealed the following: ³¹

• 74% of felons agreed that, “One reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime.”
• 57% of felons polled agreed, “Criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.”

Myth: Gun availability encourages crime

Fact: “The largest risk factor [for using a gun in crime] was prior criminal record: compared to purchasers with no criminal history, those with an arrest within three years prior to purchase had 6.8 times the risk of arrest for a [firearm related violence] crime and four times the risk if their prior arrest was more than three years before the index purchase.” ³²

Myth: “Ghost guns” are widely used by criminals

Fact: A survey of the top 100 police agencies for calendar year 2019 showed that at most 1.3% of crime guns were DIY guns (when outlier agencies were removed) and maybe 2% with outlier agencies included.

Myth: Private guns are used to commit violent crimes

Fact: 90% of all violent crimes in the U.S. do not involve firearms of any type. ³³

Fact: Even in crimes where the offender possessed a gun during the commission of the crime, 83% did not use or threaten to use the gun. ³⁴

Fact: Fewer than 1% of firearms will ever be used in the commission of a crime. ³⁵

Fact: Two-thirds of the people who die each year from gunfire are criminals being shot by other criminals. ³⁶

Fact: Cincinnati’s review of their gang problem revealed that 74% of homicides were committed by less than 1% of the population. ³⁷

Fact: 92% of gang murders are committed with guns. ³⁸ Gangs are responsible for between 48% and 90% of all violent crimes. ³⁹

Fact: Most gun crimes are gang related, and as such are big-city issues. In fact, if mayors in larger cities were more diligent about controlling gang warfare, state and nationwide gun violence rates would fall dramatically.

Myth: 40% of Americans have been or personally know a gun violence victim

Fact: This data was from an unpublished survey conducted by a political research organization. Their own footnote reads “Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the New Venture Fund (Aug. 2011). Note, this is not publicly available data.” ⁴⁰

Myth: Interstate transportation of guns defeats local gun control

Fact: The BATF reports that the average age of a traced gun is 11 years ⁴¹, meaning that most guns moving from state to state were transported when legal owners moved.

Fact: Fewer than 5% of traced guns in California, many of which were not crime guns, came from neighboring Nevada and Arizona. ⁴²

Myth: High-capacity, semi-automatics are preferred by criminals

Fact: The use of semi-automatic handguns in crimes is slightly lower than the ratio of semi-automatic handguns owned by private citizens. Any increase in style and capacity simply reflects the overall supply of the various types of firearms. ⁴³

Myth: Banning “Saturday Night Specials” reduces crime

Fact: This was the conclusion of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Policy and Research – and it is wrong. They studied firearm homicide rates from Maryland after passage of a “Saturday Night Special” ban in 1998. It seems the firearm homicide rate has not subsided and remained between 68-94% higher than the national average through 2008. ⁴⁴

Fact: Even banning guns does not slow down criminals. In the U.K., where private ownership of firearms is practically forbidden, criminals have and use guns regularly, and even build their own. One enterprising fellow converted 170 starter pistols to functioning firearms and sold them to gangs. Hundreds of such underground gun factories have been established, contributing to a 35% jump in gun violence. ⁴⁵

Myth: Criminals prefer “Saturday Night Specials” ⁴⁶

Fact: “Saturday Night Specials” were used in fewer than 3% of crimes involving guns. ⁴⁷

Fact: Fewer than 2% of all “Saturday Night Specials” made are used in crimes.

Fact: “What was available was the overriding factor in weapon choice [by criminals].” ⁴⁸

Myth: Gun shows are supermarkets for criminals

Fact: Only 0.8% of convicts bought their firearms at gun shows. 39.2% obtained them from illegal street dealers. ⁴⁹

Fact: Fewer than 1% of “crime guns” were obtained at gun shows. ⁵⁰ This is a reduction from a 1997 study that found 2% of guns used in criminal offenses were purchased at gun shows. ⁵¹

Fact: The FBI concluded in one study that no firearms acquired at gun shows were used to kill police. “In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the study were obtained from gun shows.” ⁵²

Fact: Only 5% of metropolitan police departments believe gun shows are a problem. ⁵³

Fact: Only 3.5% of youthful offenders reported that they obtained their last handgun at a gun show. ⁵⁴

Fact: 93% of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally (i.e., not at gun stores or gun shows). ⁵⁵

Fact: At most, 14% of all firearms traced in investigations were purchased at gun shows. ⁵⁶ But this includes all firearms that the police traced, whether or not they were used in crimes, which overstates the acquisition rate.

Fact: Gun dealers are federally licensed. They are bound to stringent rules for sales that apply equally whether they are selling  firearms from a storefront or a gun show. ⁵⁷

Fact: Most crime guns are either bought off the street from illegal sources (39.2%) or through straw-man purchases by family members or friends (39.6%). ⁵⁸

Myth: All four guns used at Columbine were bought at gun shows

Fact: Each of the guns was either bought through an intermediary or someone who knew they were going to underage buyers. In all cases there was a purposeful criminal activity occurring and the actors knew they were breaking the law.

Myth: 25-50% of the vendors at most gun shows are “unlicensed dealers”

Fact: There is no such thing as an “unlicensed dealer,” except for people who buy and sell antique — curio — firearms as a hobby (not a business).

Fact: This 25-50% figure can only be achieved if you include those dealers not selling guns at these shows. These non-gun dealers include knife makers, ammunition dealers, accessories dealers, military artifact traders, clothing vendors, bumper-sticker sellers, and hobbyists. In short, 50% of the vendors at shows are not selling firearms at all!

Myth: Regulation of gun shows would reduce “straw sales”

Fact: The main study that makes this claim had no scientific means for determining what sales at the show were “straw sales.” Behaviors that Dr. Wintemute cited as “clear evidence” of a straw purchase were observational only and were more likely instances of more experienced acquaintances helping in a purchase decision. No attempts were made to verify that the sales in question were straw sales. ⁵⁹

Myth: Prison isn’t the answer to crime control

Fact: 24 states, in a four year period, enacted habitual offender laws (in response to escalating violent crime rates) and the incarceration of these repeat offenders led to violence rates dropping nationally while the handgun supply kept rising. See our study on habitual offender laws.

Fact: Why does crime rise when criminals are released from prison early? Because they are likely to commit more crimes. 67.5% were re-arrested for new felonies or serious misdemeanors within three years. Extrapolating, those released felons killed another 2,282 people. ⁶⁰

Fact: 45% of state prisoners were, at the time they committed their offense, under conditional supervision in the community – either on probation or on parole. ⁶¹ Keeping violent convicts in prison would reduce violent crimes.

Fact: Homicide convicts serve a little more than half of their original sentences. ⁶² Given that men tend to be less prone to violent behavior as they age, ⁶³ holding them for their full sentences would probably reduce violence significantly.

Fact: Los Angeles County saw repeat offender and re-arrest rates soar after authorities closed jails and released prisoners early. In less than three years, early release of prisoners in LA resulted in: ⁶⁴

• 15,775 rearrested convicts
• 1,443 assault charges ⁶⁵
• 518 robbery charges
• 215 sex-offense charges
• 16 murder charges

Fact: In 1991, 13,200 homicides were committed by felons on parole or probation. For comparison sake, this is about half of the 1999 annual gun death totals (keep in mind that gun deaths fell from 1991 to 1999).

Myth: Waiting periods prevent rash crimes and reduce violent crime rates

Fact: The “time-to-crime” of a firearm is about 11 years, making it rare that a newly purchased firearm is used in a crime. ⁶⁶

Fact: The national five-day waiting period under the Brady Bill had no impact on murder or robbery. In fact, there was a slight increase in rape and aggravated assault, indicating no effective suppression of certain violent crimes. Thus, for two crime categories, a possible effect was to delay law-abiding citizens from getting a gun for protection. The risks were greatest for crimes against women. ⁶⁷

Fact: Comparing homicide rates in 18 states that had waiting periods and background checks before the Brady Bill with rates in the 32 states that had no comparable laws, the difference in change of homicide rates was “insignificant”. ⁶⁸

Myth: 86% of Americans, 82% of gun owners favor universal background checks

Fact: Those statistics came from a pair of surveys reported by gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, who has been caught stacking survey responses by polling left-of-center mailing lists.

Myth: Gun makers are selling plastic guns that slip through metal detectors

Fact: There is no such thing as a ‘plastic gun’. This myth started in 1980 ⁶⁹ when Glock began marketing a handgun with a polymer frame, not the entire firearm. Most of a Glock is metal (83% by weight) and detectable in common metal and x-ray detectors. “[D]espite a relatively common impression to the contrary, there is no current non-metal firearm not reasonably detectable by present technology and methods in use at our airports today, nor to my knowledge, is anyone on the threshold of developing such a firearm.” ⁷⁰

Incidentally, Glocks are one of the favorite handguns of police departments because it is lightweight, thanks to the polymer frame.

Myth: Machine guns ⁷¹ are favored by criminals

Fact: In the drug-ridden Miami of 1980, fewer than 1% of all gun homicides were with machine guns. ⁷²

Fact: None of over 2,220 firearms recovered from crime scenes by the Minneapolis police in 1987-89 were machine guns. ⁷³

Fact: 0.7% of seized guns in Detroit in 1991-92 were machine guns. ⁷⁴

Myth: Corrupt dealers sell almost 60 percent of crime guns

Fact: Only 0.5% of the reported traces were for an original purchase of three years or less before the trace was conducted. ⁷⁵ Thus, 99.5% of retailer sales had left their control long before the gun was traced (and many traces are not for crime guns).

Fact: The average “time to crime”, the time between the retail sale of a firearm and its use in a crime is eleven years. A firearm can change hands and travel far in six years.