Introduction
In 2014 there were 11,008 firearm homicides in the United States. In December 2017 there were 11,800 companies in the United States that manufacture some firearm component.
Faced with a national epidemic of gun violence that began in the 1980s and continued throughout most of the 1990s, the federal government launched a new effort to help local authorities address gun crime. Many cities worked with NIJ researchers and other federal, state and local partners to design and test interventions to get illegally obtained guns off the streets and out of the hands of urban youth.
Initially, firearms violence intervention and research focused on either reducing the demand for illegally obtained guns or reducing the supply. More than 20 years of intervention programs, however, have shown that a single approach is not likely to work. To reduce gun violence, a sustained program that addresses both demand and supply is needed. A successful intervention will have elements of federal-local law enforcement collaboration, community involvement, targeted intervention tactics and continuous program evaluation.
When illegal gun transactions are viewed as a market phenomenon, trafficking and other illegal acquisition activities represent the supply side of the market. Criminal intent and a desire for self-protection primarily drive the demand side. Disrupting supply tackles the problem of illegal firearms transactions by attempting to stop illegal trafficking or seizing guns before they are used in a crime. Disrupting demand tackles the problem through programs intended to prevent, control, and deter criminals from seeking to acquire and use guns.
People between the ages of 15 and 24 are most likely to be targeted by gun violence as opposed to other forms of violence. From 1976 to 2005, 77 percent of homicide victims ages 15-17 died from gun-related injuries. This age group was most at risk for gun violence during this time period.
Teens and young adults are more likely than persons of other ages to be murdered with a gun. Most violent gun crime, especially homicide, occurs in cities and urban communities. [1]
Intimate partner violence can be fatal when a gun is involved — from 1990 to 2005, two-thirds of spouse and ex-spouse homicide victims were killed by guns. The overall number of firearm homicides among intimates has fallen considerably during the past 30 years, however.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the strongest influencer of gun regulation in the United States and it has annual revenues of over $330 million and a staff of 0ver 800 to make its influence as effective as possible. The NRA reported spent $30 million to influence the 2016 U.S. elections.
The CDC gun research ban was prompted by gun lobby after concerns that such research was demonstrating risks of firearms ownership. In 1993, a New England Journal of Medicine article based on CDC-funded research found that keeping a gun in the home was strongly associated with an increased risk of homicide by a family member. The NRA responded to this study by calling for the elimination of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention, which had funded the study. In 1996, Congressman Dickey successfully included a rider in the federal Labor-HHS-Education spending bill to prohibit CDC from using funds “to advocate or promote gun control” and also to cut $2.6 million, the amount CDC had spent on gun research the previous year, from the National Center for Injury Prevention’s budget.
In 2011, Congress expanded the rider to provide that no funds anywhere in the Labor-HHS-Education bill, including NIH funds, could be used, “in whole or in part, to advocate or promote gun control.” This expansion of the rider came after a NIH-funded study was published in 2009 investigating the link between gun possession and gun assaults.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was established as a separate component within the Department of Justice pursuant to Title XI of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Public Law 107-296, on January 17, 2003.
The mission of ATF is to protect communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, the illegal use and trafficking of firearms, the illegal use and storage of explosives, acts of arson and bombings, acts of terrorism, and the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco products. The major functions of ATF are to:
Reduce the risk to public safety caused by illegal firearms trafficking.
Reduce the risk to public safety caused by criminal possession and use of firearms.
Reduce the risk to public safety caused by criminal organizations and gangs.
Improve public safety by increasing compliance with Federal laws and regulations by firearms industry members.
Reduce the risk to public safety caused by bombs and explosives.
Reduce the risk to public safety caused by criminal use of fire.
Improve public safety by increasing compliance with Federal laws and regulations by explosives industry members.
Reduce the loss of tax revenues caused by contraband alcohol and tobacco trafficking.
Source: https://nij.gov/topics/crime/gun-violence/pages/affected.aspx
Source: https://www.atf.gov/about/who-we-are