People and guns involved in denied and completed handgun sales.
OBJECTIVE
Denial of handgun purchases by prohibited people and knowledge of the structure of gun commerce have helped to deter and prevent firearm violence. The authors hypothesize that handguns involved in a denied purchase would more closely resemble those used in crime compared with handguns sold.


METHODS
Cross sectional.


METHODS
Denied and completed handgun sales in California, 1998-2000.


METHODS
Handgun and purchaser characteristics of denied and completed sales were compared. In particular, handgun characteristics most closely associated with crime guns (type, caliber, barrel length, price) were examined.


RESULTS
Compared with handguns sold, handguns in denied sales were somewhat more likely to be semiautomatic pistols (74.6% v 69.4%), to have short barrels (25.9% v 22.2%), and be of medium caliber (48.9% v 37.3%). Ten percent of the handguns in denied sales and 3.4% of handguns sold were identified as inexpensive.


CONCLUSIONS
The characteristics of denied handguns are similar to those seen among crime guns. Both groups of guns may reflect the desirability for criminal purposes of pistols, which have larger ammunition capacities than other handguns, and short barrels, which increase their ability to be concealed.
Wright
M A
MA
University of California-Davis, 2315 Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. mawright@ucdavis.edu
Wintemute
G J
GJ
Claire
B E
BE
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002140:California; D003132:Commerce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged