NCJ Number
167918
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 St. Louis, Mo., 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, St. Louis had 1,917 crime gun trace requests to the NTC; of these, 1,105 (57.64 percent) possessors were identified. A total of 27 requests involved the determination of the possessor's age; there were 22 adult (25 years of age and over) trace requests, 4 youth (18-24 years old) trace requests, and 1 juvenile (17 years old and under) trace request. An analysis of trace requests by type of firearm shows that the semiautomatic pistol was the most frequently traced firearm for the adult and juvenile age groups: 10 for adults and 1 for juveniles; the revolver was the most frequent firearm type traced for youth (2). 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 for adults (n=10), and assaults/threats was the most frequent gun crime type for youth (n=2); a narcotics crime was associated with the gun crime for the one juvenile. The number of successful traces was 11 for adults, 3 for youth, 1 for juveniles, and 598 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 State was Missouri for adults; California, Missouri, and Indiana for the 3 youth traces; and Ohio for the 1 juvenile gun trace. General findings are discussed for all the participating communities and for local illegal firearms markets.