STRATEGIC DISRUPTION OF FIREARMS MARKETS

This study is a continuation of a demonstration/evaluation program which was a jointly-funded effort by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to test the utility of ATF's Youth crime Gun Interdiction Initiative (YCGII) as a source of information to examine the operation of the illegal firearms market in Los Angeles and develop interventions to strategically disrupt the supply of guns to criminals. Overall project goals are (1) to describe Los Angeles' illegal gun markets; (2) develop and implement supply side strategies to intervene in these illicit channels; and (3) to evaluate the impact of these strategies on illegal gun markets and on gun-related crime and violence. The original grant accomplished the first two of these goals, with criminal justice agencies working with a coalition of research partners working with Rand Corporation to identify both point sources (corrupt firearms dealers and organized trafficking operations) and diffuse sources (straw purchasers and informal transfers) of guns to criminals in Los Angeles and to develop a set of supply side strategies to target each of these types of sources. Currently, a task force of practitioner agencies ( LAPD; LA ATF Field Office and Regional Gun Center; Probation/Parole; and City, District and US Attorney Offices) are implementing these strategies. This continuation grant will fund the evaluation phase of the study, monitoring the implementation process and assessing the impact of these strategies on illegal gun trafficking and on firearms crime and violence in Los Angeles. Multiple methods will be used to assess program impact. Pre-post tests within Los Angeles will be conducted, controlling for crime trends and other exogenous influences. In addition, cross-city comparisons will examine changes over time in illegal gun market indicators and the rates of gun crimes in Los Angeles and other cities with comprehensive gun tracing from across the United States. Finally, a 'difference model' will be implemented, comparing LA to a similar jurisdiction, but controlling for any potential regression of violence to the mean of Los Angeles' gun violence rates.

NCF/NCA