Publication Date: April 2010
What does it say?
This article reports on a comprehensive study of the diversion of firearms from the legal to the illegal market and of strategies used by manufacturers and distributors to frustrate diversion. The article analyzes the problem using marketing principles and concepts.
Demarketing and countermarketing strategies refer to efforts to reduce the diversion of guns from the primary (FFLs) to the secondary market (private sales) and then to the illegal market. The population of the study was 60 manufacturers that produced or imported firearms for sale and 36 distributors that marketed guns in America from 1996-2000.
The authors revealed three major findings:
Finding 1: Considerable diversion of firearms to illegal markets took place in America from 1996-2000. Ten percent of handguns and 25 percent of junk guns distributed to the primary market in 1996 were used in violent crimes by 2000. Diversion varied across manufacturers of handguns, with some having less than 1 percent of their handguns traced to violent crimes while others had 55 percent traced. This held true for junk guns as well, with a wide range from 2-55 percent being traced to violent crimes by 2000.
Finding 2: Industry marketers varied extensively in their utilization of safeguards against diversion; but on average, industry marketers took part in a small number of countermarketing and demarketing measures. The average number of safeguards across the marketers was very low, roughly 1 safeguard per marketer. Manufacturers averaged 1.31, distributors averaged 0.90, and manufacturers of junk guns specifically averaged 1.25 safeguards. Fifty-seven percent of manufacturers and distributors participated in some form of channel safeguard while 43 percent of manufacturers and distributors did not participate in any safeguard. The highest participation rate for any one safeguard was 25 percent.
Finding 3: Safeguards matter. Safeguards were found to diminish both diversion and the resultant use of guns in crimes. To measure the safeguards’ effectiveness in lowering diversion, 25 manufacturer’s information was available and analyzed. The authors found that the more safeguards a manufacturer participated in, the lower the incidence of its guns being recovered from violent crime. Additionally, the type of safeguarding was also proven to be significant. The higher levels of safeguarding against diversion through nonstore/nonstocking dealers, gun shows, and straw purchases, the lower the incidence of guns diverted to crime.
To see a table summarizing the diversion pathways and the use of safeguards, click here.
How can I use it?
This study highlights the epidemic of firearm diversion to the illegal marketplace and shows that efforts to reduce firearm diversion make a difference. Use this information to educate elected officials and the media that the gun industry’s irresponsible conduct facilitates diversion of guns to the illegal market. Greater regulation of the gun industry would slow this diversion.
Citation
Gundlach, Gregory T., et al, “Countermarketing and Demarketing Against Product Diversion: Forensic Research in the Firearms Industry,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 29(2010): 103-122.
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