Title: Felonious or Violent Criminal Activity That Prohibits Gun Ownership Among Prior Purchasers of Handguns: Incidence and Risk Factors

Publication Date: May 2010

What does it say?

This study posed the question: “Among legal handgun purchasers, are people with any criminal history more likely to commit crimes later in their lives that deny them gun ownership, than legal handgun purchasers with no criminal record at all?”  The answer was “yes.”  The study used 1991 data on California handgun purchasers ages 21 to 49.

Federal law prohibits certain categories of criminals from purchasing guns, including those convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor domestic violence offense, those subject to a domestic violence restraining order, fugitives from justice, and other categories.

Many people who buy handguns legally have criminal histories - either convictions or arrests - that do not fall into the above categories and therefore do not prohibit gun ownership. 

This study finds that the risk of becoming unable to legally buy a handgun because of being caught committing a disqualifying crime is much higher among people with prior convictions or arrests than among legal handgun purchasers with no criminal record. 

Legal handgun purchasers with just one prior misdemeanor conviction were more than four times as likely to commit a crime for which gun ownership is prohibited.  Likewise, handgun owners with two prior convictions were 10 times as likely to commit a crime for which gun ownership is prohibited, and handgun owners with 3 misdemeanor convictions were 14 times as likely to lose the ability to legally purchase a handgun under federal law (see Table 3). 

More than 75 percent of the handgun purchasers with prior misdemeanor convictions who were later convicted of crimes that prohibited gun ownership had been charged with prohibiting offenses before purchasing their guns but were not convicted of those charges.

How can I use it?

The study highlights the importance of - at a minimum - assuring a background check for each purchase of a handgun to screen out prohibited people at the current federal level of disqualification.  Two strategies include extending Brady background checks to all sales, including those at gun shows and discontinuing the practice of allowing CCW permits to be used to bypass the Brady background check for years at a time. 

Additionally, the findings point to the potential of expanding the criteria for denial of handgun purchases and assuring conviction of persons charged with prohibiting offenses when supported by the facts.  Finally, the results could be used to encourage law enforcement agencies to develop programs to retrieve firearms from people who have fallen into a prohibited category and continue to possess firearms.

Citation

Wright, Mona, Wintemute, Garen, “Felonious or Violent Criminal Activity That Prohibits Gun Ownership Among Prior Purchasers of Handguns: Incidence and Risk Factors,” Journal of Trauma, online release, May 2010

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