Report: Criminals not buying guns they use

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000 | 10:44 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Early indications from a fledgling federal gun tracing program show that Las Vegas mirrors a national trend: Criminals caught with guns didn't legally buy the weapons themselves.

President Clinton on Thursday celebrated the seventh anniversary of the Brady Bill, which requires background checks for gun buyers. He said the checks have saved lives -- even though evidence shows most gun users with criminal records avoid buying guns altogether by stealing weapons or using "straw purchasers" with clean records.

"Otherwise, they would have to use a phony ID or there is no way they can get through the background check," said Marti McKee, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Clinton released Thursday the third-annual report on his 4-year-old Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative, a gun-tracing program that includes 36 cities, including Las Vegas.

As part of the program, ATF agents and police nationwide have initiated traces on 64,000 guns with hopes of cracking down on irresponsible sellers and the middlemen straw purchasers.

The number of guns traced in Las Vegas has been limited.

Between 300 and 400 guns surface in crimes in Las Vegas each month, said Bernard Zapor, Las Vegas ATF resident officer in charge. But only 382 guns were analyzed in the ATF report, mostly because of a lack of resources.

That likely will change as ATF sends a few more officers and equipment such as computers to Las Vegas, Zapor said. In addition, a federal program called Project EFFECT in Las Vegas is aimed at cracking gun-trafficking rings, tracing guns and prosecuting repeat felons, Zapor said.

And relatively new partnerships between ATF and Metro are designed to stop gun trafficking, such as when runners from California come to Las Vegas, use a straw purchaser -- often female -- to buy guns legally and return to California.

"We want armed felons and illegal arms traffickers to be terrified of our aggression toward these issues," Zapor said.

The ATF report found 9 percent of gun criminals were 17 and younger (1 percent in Las Vegas); 34 percent were 18 to 24 (15 percent in Las Vegas); and 57 percent were 25 and older (84 percent in Las Vegas).

Zapor stressed that the Las Vegas numbers don't tell the whole story because the statistics don't yet represent the vast number of total guns seized.

But the numbers still offer some insight into where guns come from and how the weapons are used.

The report said Metro Police and ATF officers in 1999 initiated traces on 296 guns used in 382 crimes (249 firearm offenses, 101 narcotics cases, eight homicides, seven robberies, five burglary/theft/fraud cases and 12 other cases).

Of the 382 offenses, police had pinned the guns to specific criminals in 345 cases, but could trace the gun to the original buyers in only 168 cases. The criminals caught with the guns were the original gun buyers in fewer than 10 percent of those cases.

About 49 percent of the traceable guns were bought originally from federally licensed gun sellers in Nevada; in 29 percent of cases from gun sellers in California, Arizona or Utah, the report said.

Guns also were traced to 20 other states, including North Dakota, Florida, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Alabama.

Of the 382 guns: 179 were semiautomatic pistols, 83 revolvers, 60 rifles, 52 shotguns and eight Derringers.

The most popular guns for criminals in Las Vegas, in order: Smith & Wesson .38 revolver; Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun; Smith & Wesson 9 mm semiautomatic pistol; Smith & Wesson .357 revolver; and Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic pistol.

The report makes a passing reference to another gun: "The North China Industries 7.62 mm rifle is frequently traced from Las Vegas." The gun, similar to an AK-47, can pierce car doors and soft body armor worn by an average police officer.

But that gun, common in eastern Europe and Russia and popular with many street gangs in America, is found in many U.S. cities, Zapor said.

"It was designed by the Russians to kill us, and it's here in America," Zapor said. "It's a reliable, relatively inexpensive, devastating weapon."