PROBLEM: Individuals in most states are currently able to purchase an unlimited number of handguns at one time. Many of these individuals are gun traffickers who then re-sell these guns, at a profit, to dangerous people not otherwise able to purchase handguns because of a felony conviction or other disqualifying record.

THREAT: When almost anyone can buy an unlimited number of guns at one time, it becomes easier for them get into the wrong hands, including felons, juveniles, domestic abusers, and others not able to pass a Brady background check. Guns purchased in large-volume sales often end up being used in crime. ATF reports that 20% of all guns traced to crime were obtained through a multiple-gun purchase.

URGENCY: Every year, law enforcement officers across the country take thousands of crime guns off the streets. But as long as we make it easy for traffickers to make big profits by making large-volume gun purchases and high-dollar large-volume gun sales, the criminal market will always be restocked with a new supply of illegal guns.

SOLUTION: Federal and state legislators must pass legislation to prohibit large-volume handgun sales. California, Maryland, and Virginia have passed laws that limit handgun sales to one per month per person. These “One Handgun A Month” laws do not impact the typical gun owner but do help put gun traffickers out of business and help dry up the supply of illegal guns.

PEOPLE WILL DIE

When Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell decided to sign legislation that repeals Virginia's 19-year-old restriction on selling more than one handgun a month, he ignored the pleas of the Virginia Tech families.

Colin Goddard was outraged. "The governor had a chance to be a leader for our state and for the nation in preventing future gun tragedies, but he chose a different path. As a result, innocent people will die."

Dan Gross, new president of the Brady Campaign, said: "We're not going away, we're not backing down. If politicians make decisions that cost American lives, we will make sure the voices of their constituents are heard."

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Other than gun traffickers, who needs this many handguns at once? Gov. McDonnell chose the gun lobby over his constituents.

Q. What are large-volume gun sales?

A. Large-volume guns sales are sales of multiple handguns to a single buyer in a short period of time. Currently, federal law does not limit the number of firearms that a person can buy in one transaction. A few states restrict the number of firearms that a person can buy. Gun traffickers, often using a "straw buyer" (a person who has a clean record and can pass the required Brady Law background check) take advantage of this loophole in federal law by buying large numbers of guns, usually handguns, from gun dealers and reselling them on the street to criminals.

Q. Why are large-volume sales a problem?

A. Large volume sales are a problem because they make it easy for traffickers to turn a profit selling guns to dangerous people like felons and domestic abusers. People buy guns in bulk at retail, and then sell them for profit in the illegal market. Limiting bulk sales helps take the profit out of gun trafficking and makes it easier to catch gun traffickers because they have to make more purchases to accumulate the same number of guns.

Federal law enforcement regards the purchase of multiple handguns by a single buyer in a single transaction as an indicator that the buyer intends to traffic the guns to the illegal market. Handguns sold in multiple sales accounted for 20% of all handguns sold and traced to crime in 2000 (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, p. 52).

A 2010 study published in the Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine found that handguns purchased in bulk were 33 percent more likely to be used in crime under circumstances that suggested trafficking than handguns purchased one at a time (Wright, 2010).

In a particularly egregious recent example, a licensed gun dealer/distributor named Charles Brown sold hundreds of guns at Ohio gun shows to straw purchasers, including 87 handguns in a single transaction. Those guns were systematically trafficked from Ohio into New York State by James Bostic, where they have been used in dozens of crimes (Brady Center, p. 36).

Examples of people victimized by crimes involving multiple-sale guns include several victims of a hate-crime spree through Illinois and Indiana fueled with a gun bought from a gun trafficker who systematically acquired more than 70 handguns from a single Illinois dealer (Siebel, p. 926), two New Jersey police officers that were shot with a gun sold as part of a 12-handgun sale by a West Virginia gun dealer, and a Philadelphia woman who lost her seven-year-old son to a gun trafficked from an upstate-Pennsylvania dealer (Brady Center, p. 31).

Q. Do limits on large-volume gun sales help prevent gun trafficking?

A. Yes. It's just common sense that if you prevent handguns from being bought in large numbers, it will make it more difficult for traffickers to acquire guns to resell on the streets to criminals.

In addition to common sense, peer-reviewed, published research has documented that laws to limit bulk sales reduce gun trafficking. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association of Virginia's law showed that for guns recovered in crime in the Northeast and traced, the odds that a gun was purchased in Virginia relative to gun dealers elsewhere in the Southeast were reduced 66 percent after the law took effect (Weil, p. 1760).

The Virginia State Crime Commission concluded:

"Virginia's one-gun-a-month statute has had its intended effect of reducing Virginia's status as a source state for gun trafficking. The imposition of the law does not appear to create an onerous burden for law-abiding gun purchasers" (Virginia State Crime Commission, p. 7).

According to Helen Fahey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, "Since passage of the legislation, instances of gunrunning have decreased dramatically."

Maryland has also adopted this type of law. In Maryland, handgun sales dropped more than 20% during the first year of that state's gun sale limitation law (Koper, p. 19). Furthermore, the risk of multiple-sale guns being recovered in crime was lower after the passage of Maryland's law (Koper, p. 83).

Illegal guns are a national problem requiring a national solution. In the meantime, it is very important for states to adopt laws limiting bulk sales of handguns to make it harder to traffic guns in their state and to build support for a national solution.

The experiences of Maryland and Virginia confirm what common sense tells us and are reminders of why we need to build support for our efforts to stop illegal gun trafficking.

Q. Do gun owners support laws to limit bulk sales of handguns?

A. Yes. Sixty percent of gun owners support a law to limit bulk sales of handguns. Support is even higher (72 percent) among people who live in households with guns, but do not personally own a gun, and among non-gun owners (Smith, p. 53).

Q. Why does the gun lobby oppose efforts to limit large-volume gun sales?

A. The gun lobby and the gun industry do not like laws that could result in a reduction in gun sales, even sales of guns that make their way into the illegal market. Their desire for profits outweighs any concern for public safety.

In response to such efforts, the gun lobby raises the phony argument that such efforts will hurt hunters, sportsmen and collectors. There is no limit on the purchase of hunting rifles or shotguns. And the one-gun-a-month laws still allow the purchase of twelve handguns per year.

In Virginia, an exception is made for law enforcement agencies, private security companies, the purchase of antique firearms and for persons whose handgun was stolen or irretrievably lost and needs to be replaced immediately.

Q. What is the solution?

A. We need to make it harder for dangerous people to get dangerous guns by limiting bulk sales of guns nationally and at the state level.

Sources

Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Shady Dealings: Illegal Gun Trafficking From Licensed Gun Dealers, Washington, DC: Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence (January 2007).

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Crime Gun Trace Reports (2000) National Report, Washington, DC: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (July 2002).

Koper, Christopher S., Crime Gun Risk Factors: Buyer, Seller, Firearm, and Transaction Characteristics Associated with Gun trafficking and Criminal Gun Use: Report to the National Institute of Justice, Philadelphia, PA: Jerry Lee School of Criminology (2007): 1-96.

Siebel, Brian, Gun Industry Immunity: Why the Gun Industry's "Dirty Little Secret" Does Not Deserve Congressional Protection University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law 73:4 (Summer 2005).

Smith, Tom, Public Opinion on Gun Control, Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center December 2003.

Virginia State Crime Commission, Report of the Virginia State Crime Commission to the Governor and the General Assembly of Virginia: Virginia's Law on Handgun Purchase Limits, Richmond, VA: Virginia State Crime Commission. 1996 (House Document No. 28)

Weil, Doug and Rebecca Knox, Effects of Limiting Handgun Purchases on Interstate Transfer of Firearms, Journal of the American Medical Association 275 (1996):1759-1761

Wright, Mona, Wintemute,Garen J., and Webster, Daniel W., Factors Affecting a Recently Purchased Handgun's Risk for Use in Crime Under Circumstances That Suggest Trafficking, Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Online First, March 31, 2010