There is no "black market" for guns in America. How can there be if legal transactions don't require checks. That makes the "legal" market fraught with illegal transactions.
The neighborhood I grew in, the hoods got their guns illegally, often from bootleggers (we were "dry" until 1968, except for a few members-only clubs licensed by the state like Eagles and VFW). So "There is no "black market" for guns in America." fails the personal experience test.
Black market did not show up in the National Survey on Private Ownership and use of Firearms NSPOF used by the Obama administration for that infamous 40% stat, but it was a survey of random selected non-institutionalised citizens. Legal gun acquisitions represent the majority of the national gun market. Sources used by the average citizen were broken down by the (NSPOF):
NSPOF Survey: From whom did you acquire your gun?
43% Gun store
6% Pawnshop
11% Other store
4% Gun show or flea market
3% Through the mail (pre-1898 or muzzleloader)
17% Member of the family
12% Friend or acquaintance
4% Other
NSPOF Survey: How did you acquire your gun?
60% Retail purchase
13% Purchase from private party (used guns)
3% Swap or trade from private party (used guns)
19% Gift from family or friend
5% Inheritance
Notice that 40% non-store acquisition is
not 40% sales at gun shows without a background check.
No mention of black market in the NSPOF survey; for black market, you have to survey state inmates or armed criminals.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics survey gave these as sources of guns possessed by state inmates:
13.9% Retail Sources:
8.3% Retail store
3.8% Pawnshop
1.0% Flea market
0.7% Gun show
39.6% Friends or family:
12.8% Purchase or trade
18.5% Rent or borrow
8.3% Other
39.2% Street/illegal source:
9.9% Theft or burglary
20.8% Drug dealer/street
8.4% Fence/black market
(I count drug dealers, fences, burglars with the black market. And "friends" of criminals are often criminals themselves. Sometimes family of criminals are also criminals.)
In the more focussed felon survey of 1,874 felons convicted of crimes while armed (Wright & Rossi, "Armed and Considered Dangerous"), about half of gun sources were street sales: fence, burglar, drug dealer, smuggler, black market; one-fourth were loans from fellow criminals ("friends" in the BJS survey); one-eighth were guns stolen for personal use and the remaining one-eighth or so were retail purchase at gun store or pawn shop by friend, lover or family member with no criminal record (usually "straw purchase").
While about 13% of "armed and considered dangerous" felons reported stealing guns for personal use, 40% of them reported stealing guns--for resale to fences or other criminals or trade with drug dealers. Sources stolen from included manufacturers, truck shipments, wholesalers, retailers, police and homes. Most of those sources would still exist under a total ban on civilian gun ownership.
