Study: Gun Licensing Reforms Had Little Effect on Crime Rates

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Study: Gun Licensing Reforms Had Little Effect on Crime RatesBy Jim BurnsCNSNews.com Senior Staff WriterMarch 28, 2002(CNSNews.com) - Higher licensing fees, mandatory background checks and a crackdown on part-time gun dealers, all changes that went into effect in the mid-1990s, had little to do with America's drop in violent crime in the years that followed, according to a new study from a criminologist at the University of Pennsylvania.Christopher Koper, from the university's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, examined the federal government's attempt to reduce crime through changes in firearms licensing requirements. He found that while the reforms pushed 70 percent of gun dealers out of the gun-selling arena, the changes did not oust the dealers who supply most guns to criminals."Dealers who dropped out of the gun selling market tended to be low volume sellers while dealers who remained in business after the reforms were instituted were larger, high volume sellers who sold two-thirds of guns that were recovered by police as part of criminal investigations," the study found.Koper told CNSNews.com that the Brady Law signed in 1993 and implemented in 1994, did affect the way in which guns are sold."In 1993, they raised the (firearms) license fees and then the Brady Bill went into effect, which I think is relevant because for dealers that were operating in states that did not have background check procedures, the Brady effect essentially made them follow new procedures in doing gun sales," said Koper.The 1994 Crime Act was instrumental as well, Koper said. The new laws required licensees to be "engaged in the business" of selling guns as a "regular course of trade." The improved adherence to such law suggested a dramatic decrease of "laissez faire gun dealers" whose practice is to make only occasional sales, exchanges and purchases of firearms, the study said. The National Rifle Association was pleased with Koper's findings, according to spokesperson Kelly Whitley."This study validates what NRA has been saying for years; criminals get their guns from the black market and stealing and not from federally licensed dealers," Whitley said."This study disproves the Clinton-era anti-gun claims that an attack on federally licensed dealers was an attack on those causing trouble. We now know that it was only an attack on dealers with a low number of sales," Whitley added. The Violence Policy Center (VPC), however, is lobbying for more gun licensing reforms."All federally licensed firearms dealers should be required to operate from a storefront business, not a residence. Licenses should be limited to businesses devoted primarily to the sale of firearms. Gun shops should be conspicuously identified to the public as such," said VPC in a statement on its website."ATF should have the authority to suspend a dealer's license or assess civil penalties, in addition to revocation authority, when a dealer violates the law," VPC added. The study was published this week in "Criminology&Public Policy," a new journal being published by the American Society of Criminology, which bills itself as a non-partisan membership organization of criminologists.Koper says he analyzed data between 1994 and 1998, regarding the original sales source of crime-related guns and also investigated how many dealers dropped out of the gun retailing sales business following the enactment of federal reforms. http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200203\NAT20020328d.html