For Immediate Release:
December 22, 1998

CONTACT: Laurie Slothower
(916) 734-9023
Garen Wintemute, MD, MPH
(916) 734-3539

MISDEMEANOR CRIME RECORD IS A GOOD PREDICTOR OF LATER CRIMINAL ACTIVITY IN LEGAL BUYERS OF HANDGUNS
Fifteen-year study of 5,923 purchasers shows dramatic increases in crime risk.

Sacramento, Calif. - Among persons who legally purchased handguns, those who had previously been convicted of misdemeanor crimes were 7.5 times as likely to be charged with new crimes after buying their guns as were handgun buyers who had no prior criminal record. Those who had previously been convicted of two or more violent misdemeanor crimes were 15.1 times as likely to be charged with murder, rape, robbery, or aggravated assault after buying their handguns as were handgun buyers who had no prior criminal record.

These are among the findings of a study of 5,923 purchasers of handguns in California, published in the December 23, 1998, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The 15-year study was conducted by investigators at the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, led by Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine physician and professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine.

"It is important to emphasize that all the handgun buyers in our study purchased their guns legally, after passing a criminal records background check," says Wintemute. "While the law prohibits persons convicted of felonies or misdemeanor domestic violence offenses from purchasing firearms, in most places persons convicted of other misdemeanors can still buy guns legally. Perhaps 10 percent of all those who legally purchase handguns each year have previously been convicted of misdemeanor crimes."

The study focused on 5,923 persons who were less than 50 years of age when they purchased handguns in California in 1977 -- 3,128 with at least one prior conviction for a misdemeanor crime and 2,795 who had never been arrested -- and measured their risk for new criminal activity through the end of 1991. The results were adjusted to account for differences in the age, sex, and race/ethnicity composition of the two groups. Additional analyses were done to account for handgun buyers whose records were not available.

The 3,128 handgun buyers with prior misdemeanor convictions amassed a total of 7,907 convictions, including 672 for violent crimes, prior to purchasing their handguns. One person had been convicted of 33 separate crimes. In the 15 years after they bought their guns, 50.4 percent of this group were charged at least once with a new crime; 24.9 percent were charged at least once with a new violent crime; and 15.4 percent were charged at least once with a Violent Crime Index offense: murder, rape, robbery, or aggravated assault. Of handgun buyers with no prior criminal record, just 9.8 percent were charged with a new crime in the 15 years after they bought their guns; 4.4 percent were charged with a new violent crime and 2.5 percent with a Violent Crime Index offense. "The new crime rates in our never-arrested group of handgun buyers are very similar to those for never-arrested persons in the general population," Wintemute says.

The study found that the more times a handgun buyer had been convicted of a misdemeanor crime prior to handgun purchase, the more likely that handgun buyer was to be charged with a new crime after buying a gun. However, even handgun buyers who had previously been convicted of only one misdemeanor crime, and whose conviction involved neither guns nor violence, were 5.9 times as likely to be charged with a new crime, and 4.8 times as likely to be charged with a new crime involving guns or violence, as were handgun buyers who had never been arrested.

"The study shows that 'not-so-law-abiding' handgun buyers -- those with a misdemeanor criminal record -- are substantially more likely to be charged with new crimes than are handgun buyers who have no criminal record at all, even if their prior offenses did not involve guns or violence," says Wintemute. He noted that, in an article published in September, 1998, in the New England Journal of Medicine, as many as 95 percent of the general public -- and 91 percent of gun owners -- supported a policy of prohibiting persons who had been convicted of misdemeanor crimes from purchasing firearms. In California and in several other states, those who have been convicted of some violent misdemeanors are already prohibited from buying guns.

This study is the latest in a series of reports on risk factors for violence from the Violence Prevention Research Program, an organized research program of the University of California, Davis. The study was supported by a grant from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Additional support was provided by the California Wellness Foundation.