In 2014, 21 Maine-bought guns were used in crimes in other states, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the least of any state. Per capita, we’re still quite low.
The ATF traced the source of 170,000 guns used in crimes in 2014 and found that 28 percent were bought in different states from where the crime was committed. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post’s Wonkblog crunched the numbers and made this map of guns per state.
When ranked per capita, Maine had fewer than two guns used in out-of-state crimes per 100,000 residents. (Note: Originally we had a map from the Washington Post giving Maine a way-off figure of 18.95 guns used in crimes per 100,000 Mainers. Thanks to @Metroid74 on Twitter for spotting the error.)
Why does it matter? For one thing, it shows how states’ gun laws don’t necessarily keep guns out. While states like Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey enact strict gun laws, it’s easy for guns from states like Georgia and Virginia to cross state borders.
Ingraham notes that, on average, the crimes are committed more than 10 years after the guns were first sold. That means most of these guns probably weren’t originally bought with a crime in mind but got into criminals’ hands anyway.
So how do these legally-bought guns end up in criminals’ hands? Maybe those 21 guns from Maine were all stolen from people’s homes, or maybe they were bought secondhand. We’ll likely never know.
According to Ingraham, there’s no way to research that because of a 2004 amendment that “makes it unlawful for ATF’s detailed gun trace data — which contains information on individual purchasers, guns and retailers — from being used for any purpose other than crime investigation.”
It also makes it impossible to determine what effect, if any, Obama’s recent executive order tightening gun laws would have had on these crimes.