Do we have statistics on legal/illegal gun use?

[B!ngo]

I've been surfing and googling to determine 'where is truth' regarding the percentage of gun-related crimes that are committed with illegally owned versus legally owned firearms. My personal hypothesis is that relatively few are committed with legally owned guns but I cannot find what I consider to be a relatively neutral source to cite an informed number.
Does anyone have any data here?
And the obvious reason I ask, assuming my hypothesis bears truth, is that it would point to the fact that much of the anti-gun legislation is focused on the wrong set of issues. But I just don't actually know.
Any help?
B

 

[brickeyee]

If you count EVERY gun crime (see FBI stats) as illegal and divide by the number of guns in circulation (many hundreds of millions) you get a small number.

 

[Quiet]

Approximate number of firearms in the USA = 400,000,000

Latest stats from the CDC...
(2009) Homicide deaths by Firearms = 11,493

So...

0.0000287325% of firearms are used to murder a person in the USA.

 

[AlexanderA]

What is an "illegally owned" gun? One that is possessed by a "prohibited person" under federal law? One that hasn't been registered, etc., under applicable state law (in the few states that require registration)?

It seems to me that gun-related crimes fall into two categories: those by professional or hardened criminals (armed robbery, etc.), and those in which some otherwise law-abiding person snaps (a crime of passion or sudden mental illness). A gun's status as legal or illegal (however you define it) probably correlates strongly with these categories.

 

[Frank Ettin]

An interesting study would be to track a gun used in a crime backwards through the chain of possession. When/how was it initially acquired from a commercial source? Was it initially acquired lawfully? How many times was it transferred legitimately before it entered the stream of illicit commerce? How many times was it transferred unlawfully within the stream of illicit commerce? When/how was it acquired by the perpetrator of the crime?

Of course, I tend to doubt that the necessary data would be available, except in rare cases. I also tend to doubt that this could be done with a sufficiently large and sufficiently randomized sample to give us any useful information.

 

[Art Eatman]

Ancient data, but BATF testified before Congress during the "Assault Weapon" stuff that some 85% to 87% of gun crimes were committed with stolen guns. About 10% or maybe a bit more were still owned by the original purchaser who "went bad" or had been loaned to somebody else who did the same. BATF guesstimated that maybe 3% to 5% had been bought at a gun show; some buyers were originally good guys and some were bad guys from the git-go.

 

[Librarian]

Didn't realize it was a 1995 publication - time flies!

"Guns Used In Crime", NCJ 148201, bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/GUIC.PDF

Slightly more recent, "Firearm Use By Offenders", NCJ 189369, https://www.ncjrs.gov/app/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=189369; 1997 survey data published 2001

• In 1997 among State inmates possessing a gun, fewer than 2% bought their firearm at a flea market or gun show, about 12% from a retail store or pawnshop, and 80% from family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source.