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Federal Firearms Licensing Reforms and Declining Crime Rates
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Federal Firearms Licensing Reforms and Declining Crime Rates To: National Desk Contact: Natasha A. Frost of the American Society of Criminology, 212-237-8988 NEW YORK, March 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The drop in the national crime rate through the 1990's had little to do with the Federal Firearms License (FFL) reforms enacted in 1994, a study has concluded. The study is being reported this week in Criminology & Public Policy, a new journal dedicated to policy discussions of criminology research findings. The journal is published by the American Society of Criminology, a non-partisan membership organization of criminologists. The research, conducted by Christopher Koper of the University of Pennsylvania's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, examines the federal government's attempt to reduce crime through reforming firearms licensing requirements. The researcher analyzed data regarding the original sales source of crime-related guns from 1994 to 1998 and investigated how many dealers dropped out of the gun retailers sales business following the FFL reforms. Koper finds that while the reforms certainly reshaped the business of gun selling and its regulation, they did not necessarily oust dealers who supplied guns to criminals. Although federal licensing reforms pushed 70 percent of FFL gun dealers out of the gun selling arena, drops in crime across the nation may have been largely unrelated. Dealers who dropped out of the gun selling market tended to be low-volume sellers, while dealers who remained in business after FFL reforms (30 percent of pre-reforms retail market) were larger, high volume sellers who sold two thirds of guns recovered by police as a part of criminal investigations. The study reasoned that while FFL reforms may not have greatly affected the number of guns finding their way into criminal hands, they have improved adherence to existing firearms-sales laws. These laws flatly require licensees to be "engaged in the business" of selling guns as "a regular course of trade." The improved adherence to such laws suggested a dramatic decrease of laissez-faire gun dealers whose practice is to make only occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms. Although the FFL reforms may have had a modest impact to date in reducing the flow of guns to offenders, they may have set the groundwork for more effective regulation of gun dealers. The report suggested that future investigative resources focus on "gun dealers with unusually high ratios of (gun) traces to sales." This is accomplished through cost-benefit analyses to determine which remaining gun dealers warrant investigation when weighed against available federal, state, and local resources. http://www.usnewswire.com -0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 03/26 15:35 http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/first/0326-130.html