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Originally Posted by willravel
Here's a question that never gets answered: what happens between production and illegal ownership? What goes wrong?
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In 1994, Norinco was caught shipping 2000 AK47s to the US; these were determined to be headed to Oakland, CA for sale to gang members. Since automatic weapons are still found in the possession of gang members, it's reasonable to think that this kind of thing has happened repeatedly and not been discovered.
Some dealers knowingly sell to criminals or turn a blind eye to shady sales, and those dealers are typically shut down by the ATF. Some guns are stolen, some bought privately from people who either don't know or don't care about the legality of the buyer owning a gun. Some are bought by gang members who keep clean criminal records so they can straw purchase guns for the gang. Crime guns are passed around and sold to other gangs to disrupt the evidence trail.
The biggest gun violence demographic is gangs, both perpetrators and victims, and it seems logical to me that they should be the largest target of investigations and prosecutions. I would consider it reasonable to study the feasibility and potential effectiveness of adding convictions for gang-related activity to the list of disqualifications for legal gun purchases. Investigations into gangs should look at the sources of illegal guns and focus on ways to shut down those channels without affecting legal owners.