NCJ Number
167921
Date Published
1997
Length
33 pages
Annotation
Based on crime guns for which trace requests were submitted to the National Tracing Center (NTC) during the period of July 1, 1996, through April 30, 1997, this report provides statistics on firearms in New York, N.Y., associated with illegal possession or activity.
Abstract
This report is part of the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative, a 17-city demonstration project aimed at reducing youth firearms violence. For the purpose of this project, a "crime gun" is defined as "any firearm that is illegally possessed, used in a crime, or suspected by enforcement officials of being used in a crime." As part of providing crime gun trace information for a 10-month period, this report contains analyses of requests for crime gun traces; analyses of successful NTC traces; analysis of incomplete traces; and analyses by adult, youth, and juvenile age categories. For the study period, New York City had 12,873 crime gun trace requests to the NTC; of these, 10,234 (79.50 percent) possessors were identified. A total of 8,884 requests involved the determination of the possessor's age; there were 4,858 adult (25 years of age and over) trace requests, 3,019 youth (18-24 years old) trace requests, and 1,007 juvenile (17 years old and under) trace requests. An analysis of trace requests by type of firearm shows that the semiautomatic pistol was the most frequently traced firearm for all three age groups: 2,631 for adults, 1,993 for youth, and 657 for juveniles. Another table shows the top 10 crime guns requested for tracing by type, manufacturer, and caliber. Firearms offenses was the crime type most often associated with trace requests: 4,118 for adults, 2,525 for youth, and 836 for juveniles. The number of successful traces was 1,116 for adults, 737 for youth, 193 for juveniles, and 2,991 for all ages. Other data reported show time- to-crime rates for the top 10 crime guns requested for tracing by type, manufacturer, and caliber, as well as the most frequent source-State for successfully traced crime guns; the top States were New York for adults, followed closely by Florida; Virginia for youth, followed closely by Florida; and Florida for juveniles, followed closely by Virginia. General findings are discussed for all the participating communities and for local illegal firearms markets.