Crime
States Where The Most Guns are Trafficked From: All 50 States, Ranked
Published:
Deadly gun violence is a grim reality in the United States. In 2023, there were 656 mass shootings, as reported by the Trace.Org, an anti-gun violence organization. With a largely bipartisan divide on gun legislation in Washington, there is an absence of strong laws at the federal level. This leaves gun control legislation up to each state.
Unfortunately, the loopholes in gun legislation supply a thriving black market. Thousands of firearms move across state lines for illicit purposes, as guns purchased in the least restrictive states are redistributed in states with stricter gun policies. Firearm tracing data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is key in understanding this issue. (See the states with the loosest gun laws.)
According to a statement released by the White House, the largest source of guns illegally trafficked into communities are from unlicensed dealers who do not conduct background checks. Additionally, in an assessment of its gun trafficking investigations from 2017 to 2021, ATF identified sales by unlicensed dealers as the most frequently used gun trafficking channel.
When police recover a firearm suspected to have been involved in a crime, they can enlist the help of the ATF to trace the firearm and determine when and where it was originally purchased. Last year, the ATF traced over 107,000 firearms that were recovered by law enforcement in states they were not initially sold in.
While not all guns traced by the ATF were used in a crime — and not all firearms used for illicit purposes are traced — federal tracing data offers valuable insight into trends and geographic patterns related to interstate gun trafficking in the United States. (See the city in each state with the most gun-related crimes.)
Using firearm tracing data from the ATF, 24/7 Wall St. identified the states trafficking the most guns to the rest of the country. We ranked all 50 states on the share of guns first sold there that were recovered by law enforcement in a different state in 2022.
24/7 is covering the states where the most guns are trafficked from to keep readers aware of the potential for crime related to gun trafficking in their area, and how it can influence the economy. The top 10 states on this list account for over half of all firearms that were recovered by law enforcement in 2022 in a different part of the nation. The majority of these states have relatively few firearm restrictions. Geography also appears to play a role in interstate gun trafficking patterns. Often, the largest share of guns traced by the ATF to a given state were recovered by police in a bordering state. In 2022, the ATF traced over 1,200 firearms found in Florida back to the neighboring state of Georgia. High crime areas take an economic toll on local economies. Crime is costly – not only does it affect the labor market, housing market, and local businesses – victims of crime pay an emotional and economic price as well.
Scroll below to see states where the most guns are trafficked from: all 50 states ranked. All data is from 2022.
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