Gun Availability and Violent Crime: New Evidence from the National Incident-Based Reporting System

Author: Stolzenberg, L. / D’Alessio, S.J.
Publication: Social Forces
Topics: Age Group Crime Criminology Gun Carrying Law Enforcement Legislation and Policy
Keywords: GUN control VIOLENT crimes Youth firearm availability gun crimes
Bibliographic information +

Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System for South Carolina from 1991 to 1994, the authors explore how gun availability is related to violent crime, gun crime, youth gun crime and violent crime committed with a knife. They report a strong positive relationship between illegal gun availability and violent crime, gun crime and youth gun crime. The findings also show that illegal guns have little influence on violent crimes committed with a knife. They find little or no link between legal gun availability and violent crime, gun crime and youth gun crime. However, the authors acknowledge that gun registration data, which were used in this study, are an incomplete measure of legal gun availability since approximately 2 million guns per year are acquired in off-the-book transactions not involving federally licensed gun dealers.