Should violent criminals be permitted to buy handguns? US federal law says yes and no. People who have been convicted of felony crimes are prohibited from purchasing handguns, but people convicted of misdemeanors—including violent misdemeanors that do not involve violence against an intimate partner—are not. Were Congress to extend the prohibition on handgun sales to include persons convicted of violent misdemeanors, it could do so with the public's approval. A recent survey1 of US adults found strong support for policies to prohibit persons convicted of misdemeanors, even nonviolent misdemeanors, from purchasing handguns—but is this a policy worth pursuing?
In this issue of THE JOURNAL, a study by Wintemute et al2 presents convincing evidence that a prior misdemeanor conviction is a strong predictor of subsequent criminal activity among handgun purchasers, including the most violent crimes, such as murder and rape, and firearm-related crimes. Moreover, the authors found that nearly 1 in 5 handgun purchasers with at least 1 prior misdemeanor conviction were charged with a new crime within a year of purchasing a handgun compared with less than 1 in 50 individuals with no prior conviction. There was also a dose-response relationship of criminal history to subsequent offenses since purchasers with more than 1 conviction were even more likely to be charged with new offenses than individuals with only 1 conviction prior to the purchase of a handgun. Even working under the most conservative assumption that no new crimes had been committed by individuals whose criminal records had been purged, handgun purchasers with prior misdemeanor convictions were twice as likely as those without criminal histories to be charged with subsequent criminal offenses.
It should not be surprising that purchasers with violent criminal histories were charged with new violent offenses after buying a handgun, although it might seem puzzling that the risk of subsequent violent and firearm-related offenses was high even for handgun purchasers whose previous misdemeanor convictions were for crimes that did not involve firearms or violence. However, it is widely accepted3 that criminals are more likely than law-abiding persons to commit subsequent crimes, irrespective of the seriousness of the first criminal offense—a finding reinforced by Wintemute et al.
Under current federal law, convicted felons, fugitives from justice, persons adjudicated mentally defective, persons receiving a dishonorable discharge from the US military, and persons convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence are prohibited from purchasing handguns. Several states extend these federal criteria and prohibit persons with convictions for other violent misdemeanors, such as assault, from purchasing handguns.4 In most states, however, persons convicted of misdemeanors are not prohibited from purchasing handguns, and no state prohibits the sale of handguns to persons convicted of nonviolent misdemeanors.
The study by Wintemute et al suggests that there may be policy arguments for extending the federal criteria for prohibiting handgun purchase to include some or all types of misdemeanor convictions, particularly those involving violence. Still, a statutory provision in and of itself does not ensure that all illegal handgun transfers will be interrupted. To have the greatest impact, criminal records and other records, such as mental health and military discharge, should be complete and accessible. Handgun laws should be modified so that background check and record keeping requirements that apply to retail sales also are extended to cover transfers that do not involve a gun dealer. Despite the enormous success of the Brady law in stopping felons and fugitives from purchasing handguns at gun stores,5 some prohibited purchasers undoubtedly escape detection, and others who are detected and are prohibited from purchasing handguns legally may obtain them from the secondary market.6 Solutions to these problems may require different approaches, such as preventing handgun theft, detecting and disrupting illegal sales, and seizing illegally carried handguns.7
If the prohibition against the purchase or possession of a handgun were extended to individuals convicted of prior violent misdemeanors, one challenge to the law's efficacy would be that state records regarding misdemeanor arrests and convictions are not as complete or accessible by computer as criminal history records involving felonies. This shortcoming suggests that either significant resources would need to be dedicated to computerizing the records, or the Brady law would need to be modified to extend the waiting period for people who wish to purchase a handgun, to allow time for local law enforcement officials to thoroughly search the records as they currently exist. Still, California has experienced considerable success in stopping individuals with convictions for violent misdemeanor crimes from buying guns at gun stores (Michael Van Winkle, California Department of Justice, unpublished data, November 20, 1998). The findings of Wintemute et al strongly suggest that there are compelling reasons to do so.
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
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