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2006 ATF trace data
The 2006 ATF firearms trace date is online. (Well, it WAS online. I just refreshed the page in the browser and now it shows as "not found on this server." Ah, now it's up again.).
Of course the data for NY, MA, etc. will be spun as proof that criminals are buying guns in other states and importing them.
But it also shows that the *average* time between first sale and the trace being run, nationwide, is in excess of ten years. So if there are criminal networks, they must drive very slow automobiles. The simple fact is that over a period of a decade, firearms and firearm owners move around. (Remember the trace is only to the first retail sale, and stops there. So a firearm sold in Virginia to a Virginian in 1990, who moved to New York in 1992 and stayed there for 15 years, would still show as "traced to Virginia" It would show the same if the fellow's gun were stolen after he'd been in NY for ten years and then traced).
I took a look at data for Arizona. There's no reason anyone would buy out of state in order to get around strict laws on buying guns: we have none. No registration, no permits, no gun rationing.
Data for Arizona: 234 guns traced to California, which has stricter laws than we do. 102 traced to Texas. 76 to New Mexico, 60 to Colorado. 37 traced to Pennsylvania. The simple fact is that guns and gun owners move around, especially in the passage of a decade or more.
Of 9000 traces, the largest category is "other" at 2,700, which I take would mean recovered stolen guns, etc. 767 are "found firearm," 900 "health and safety," whatever that means, and 2,500 were for weapons violations of some type. Homicides were 442 and agg. assault 630, while drug offenses accounted for 900.
Then take a look at NY. 11,000 traces: 189 in connection with a homicide, 321 with robbery. Almost all the other 10,500 are traced in connection with a gun law violation, but not for use in crime.
Oh-- as a comment notes, Virginia traced 26 firearms to New York! And almost 10% of New Hampshire traces came from Massachusetts! This is obvious proof that Virginia and New Hampshire criminals are taking advantage of the law guns laws in New York and Massachusetts. In Vermont (where they don't even have a CCW law), ten guns (7% of its traces) traced to NY or MA.
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My guess is that "health and safety" are traces pursuant to confiscations related to attempted suicides.
The anti's will spin it 'till it pukes...fight back; Aug. 28 is National Buy Ammo day. More info over at 'War On Guns'.
"...a firearm sold in Virginia to a Virginian in 1990, who moved to New York in 1992..."
With my tongue in my cheek, I must ask, why on earth would a Virginian move to New York?
"Health and safety" may also refer to guns found on/with accident victims who are transported by police or ambulance, guns taken by police in the course of an arrest for other offenses (found in the trunk of a car stopped for drug or immigration reasons, for example), or taken from shooters who use them in self defense, pending review of the case by prosecutors. And etcetera, as the Latin illiterati would say.
I suspect that "health and safety" refers more to officer health and safety than to that of citizens. But I have also heard that some (most? all?) PDs trace every gun they get their hands on by any means, and all of those would have to have some sort of classification, for which Health and Safety may be the catch-all.
I have to laugh at the "unknown" category on the "Types" graph. I thought the BATFE defined what a certain type of firearm is... how could they be "unknown"?
Oh, and apparently some traced guns also made it from NY to VA... Even more of NY's guns made it to FL.