Statistics firearms

Not surprisingly, there are important government sites that have useful information for gun issues research. The Treasury s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (http //www.atf.treas.gov) is the source for official federal gun regulations and their interpretation. The FBI (http //www. fbi.gov) is responsible for tracing guns involved in crime, and it gathers many statistics about gun use. And because the gun issue is so closely connected with crime trends, the Department of Justice s Bureau of Justice Statistics home page at http //www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ is another very important resource, as is its annual compilation Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (available at http //www.albany.edu/ sourcebook/). Note that the bureau site also has a set of links to other crime-statistics sites. 

Uniform Crime Reports, 2002. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Available online. URL http //www.fbi.gov/ucr/02cius.htm. Posted in 2002. Provides access to the most comprehensive and authoritative compilation of crime-related statistics, including those relating to firearms. Statistics are issued annually. 

Fact Sheet Firearm Injury and Death in the United States. Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. Available online. URL http //www.jhsph.edu/gunpolicy/US factsheet 2004.pdf. Updated in January 2004. Gives statistics and trends relating to gun violence in the United States. Overall gun-related deaths have declined by 25 percent between 1993 and 2001. Other topics summarized include effects on youth, public health effects and cost of gun ownership, summary of the effects of different types of gun laws, legal issues, regulation and litigation, and public opinion. 

United Nations. United Nations International Study on Firearm Regulation. New York United Nations, 1998. A nation-by-nation summary of firearm regulations, including statistics on criminal cases, suicides and accidents related to firearms, and information about international illicit trafficking in firearms. 

URL http //www.pcvp.org E-mail tf tf.org Phone (415) 821-8209 San Francisco General Hospital 1001 Potrero Avenue San Francisco, CA 94110 Addresses prevention of violence has a section on firearm violence. Its web site presents statistics, fact sheets, and other resources. It is a project of the Trauma Foundation. 

Container Capacities, Fill Point Variation, Sterile Filter Monitoring, Start-Up Checks. These all can be checked easily on a statistical basis. The frequency of each check should be specified so that these become routine functions of quality control. Filler-bowl wine temperature fluctuations are extremely important since they may be a major cause of fill-point fluctuation in bottles. This fluctuation cannot be overemphasized because of legal ramifications. Specific standards of fill and head-space maxima are listed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in 27 CFR, part 4. 

Statistical Release, Distilled Spirits, U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, ATF, preliminary data for 1974—1975. 

The bivariate-log-normal analysis of data collected by Guinn and co-workers appears to be the only comprehensive statistical treatment of firearm residue detection by NAA (11). Suspects handswabs were interpreted in terms of accumulated firing test data and handblanks collected from individuals of different occupational backgrounds. A somewhat more empirical interpretation of the same data is also reported (12). Additional data from smaller scale collection of handblanks have been published recently (13,14). 

The NAA method for the determination of firearm discharge residue has been generally accepted, but applications have been limited to just a few laboratories. In the process of establishing NAA capability for the State of Illinois crime laboratories we re-examined the standard techniques (10). In the course of our work it became clear that post-irradiation is the cause of several constraints which have discouraged a more widespread use of NAA. The inherent time limitation due to the 87 min. half-life of 139Ba necessitates fast manipulations of radioactive solutions which in turn requires an experienced radiochemist. In addition to an ever present danger of overexposure and contamination, typically only a dozen samples can be irradiated per batch, which makes the method quite expensive. The developed statistical bivariate-normal analysis (11) is convenient for routine applications. With this in mind, a method was developed which a) eliminates post-irradiation radiochemistry and thus maximizes time for analysis b) accommodates over 130 samples per irradiation capsule (rabbit) c) does not require a collection of occupational handblanks and d) utilizes a simplified statistical concept based on natural antimony and barium levels on hands for the interpretation of data. The detailed procedure will be published elsewhere (15). 

A "positive" firearms discharge residue result, as referred to here, is based upon occupational hand blank studies reported by several investigators (20,26,27,28). The 0.30 and 0.20 micrograin quantities for barium and antimony are conservative statistical estimates from average levels of these elements found in hand blank determinations. 

The ratio of indicative to unique particles is markedly different from that of firearm discharge. From firearm residue casework statistics, based on cases with at least one particle in the unique category, the ratio of indicative to unique particles is approximately 35 1. For starting pistol discharge residue particles the overall ratio is in the region of 1 10. 

The major problem associated with trace evidence is the possibility of cross transfer to the suspect from some unrelated source. In Northern Ireland there must be a greater contamination risk than in the rest of the United Kingdom, due to the relative abundance of firearms and explosives. Cross-contamination allegations are a frequently used defense in court. Contamination risks have been exaggerated out of all proportion, and all problems in this area stem from the difficulty in providing basic facts, knowledge, and statistics... 

Providing crucial, hard-to-find data for forensic laboratories and forensic chemists with little or no prior knowledge of firearms, this seminal work presents a wide range of firearms chemistry information and outlines the creation of an international statistical database to aid investigations. 

Sources Figures prior to 1965 compiled by Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics from issues of Wine Institutes Annual Wine Industry Statistical Survey, Part IV. Figures beginning in 1965 compiled by Wine Institute from reports of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, U.S. Treasury Department, and Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. 

U.S. Dept, of Treasury. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Summary Statistics, ATF P 1323.1, Fiscal Year 1976 (4-77) Transitional Quarters Ending September 30, 1976 (8-77) Fiscal Year 1978 (4-81) Fiscal Year 1979 (7-82). Washington, D.C. 

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