June 17, 2014. Copyright 2014, Graphic News. All rights reserved

U.S. gang members prefer semi-automatic pistols to assault rifles

LONDON, June 17, Graphic News: Overturning media stereotypes of gang members armed with fully automatic weapons, an in-depth analysis of firearms seized from U.S. felons, drug traffickers, and gang members found that more than three-quarters (77 per cent) were handguns. Most of those handguns (70 per cent) were semi-automatic pistols. Semi-automatic rifles made up just under 7 per cent of all guns seized from these groups, and the number of machine guns was negligible.

The analysis, published Monday in the Small Arms Survey 2014, is based on a sample of 10,435 firearms taken into custody by police in eight U.S. cities and towns. U.S. criminals’ preference for handguns appears to contrast sharply with the situation in Mexico, where the Survey previously found that a clear majority (72 per cent) of seized crime guns were long guns.

“While the public continues to associate drug dealing with fully automatic weapons, this is not what police are seizing from criminals in the U.S. municipalities we studied,” said Small Arms Survey Programme Director Keith Krause.

The 2014 Survey also reveals that newly produced ammunition, mostly originating from facilities in China and Sudan, is circulating in conflict-affected countries in Africa and the Middle East. Tracing investigations presented in this edition conclude that Sudan government stockpiles are, in fact, the primary source of weapons for non-state armed groups of all allegiances in Sudan and South Sudan -- both through deliberate arming and battlefield capture. Such arms monitoring is, however, increasingly hampered by the production of unmarked ammunition and the deliberate removal of weapons’ markings.

Survey findings:
• The value of the global trade in small arms and light weapons almost doubled between 2001 and 2011, according to the UN Commodity Trade Statistics Database. The category of small arms ammunition has seen the greatest increase -- up US$959 million to $1.43 billion.

• In 2011, the top exporters of small arms and light weapons (those with annual exports of at least $100 million), according to available customs data, were (in descending order) the United States, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, the Russian Federation, South Korea, Belgium, China, Turkey, Spain, and the Czech Republic.

• Top importers (those with annual imports of at least $100 million), were (in descending order) the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.

MEDIA CONTACT:
MARTIN FIELD (+41 79 573 3319 OR MARTIN.FIELD@SMALLARMSSURVEY.ORG)
/ENDS