The Epidemiology of Crime Guns: From Legal Sale to Use in Crime, Louisiana and Maryland, 2010-2016

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), collaborating with research partners, conducted a 48-month, two-phase research initiative to enhance their understanding of how firearms move from legal purchase to involvement with a crime. Phase 1 used trace data from Chicago, New Orleans, and Prince Georges County, MD to establish the path of firearms from purchase to usage in a crime. Interviews of the first legal purchaser and incarcerated inmates who committed a crime of violence in New Orleans and Prince Georges County were conducted to seek an understanding of how firearms enter the unregulated market. Phase 2 examined the use of the Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) in New Orleans as a strategy to reduce gang and gun-related homicides. Overall violence patterns in New Orleans were examined from 2010-2016.