While policymakers suggest about points such as history look for lawful weapon purchases, bad guys, generally, are not obtaining weapons through lawful means, inning accordance with Philip J. Cook.
Cook, a scientist at Fight it out College, has been monitoring the below ground weapon market in America for the last 15 years. For one project, his group mosted likely to among the biggest jails in the nation and asked the inmates one simple question: where do you obtain your weapons?They talked to 99 inmates, which is amazing, Cook says, partially because "anything that they informed us about how they obtained a weapon was basically mosting likely to be an admission of a criminal offense that they had dedicated."
EASY AS GETTING A BEER
Samuel is a previous gang participant from Chicago. He says if you are connected to a social media network such as a gang, it is easy to obtain a weapon. In his experience, obtaining a weapon was as easy as obtaining a beer. Usually he didn't also need to spend for the weapon.
"You know you didn't need to pay because whoever remained in your gang that is really prominent the gang, they would certainly have that link," Samuel says.
One point that is clear from Cook's research is that something needs to be done to quit the flow of weapons right into metropolitan communities such as the one Samuel matured in. And legislators can do something about this.
For instance, laws designed to control lawful weapon sales can significantly affect the below ground market. After Maryland passed a Gun and Safety act in 2013, 41 percent of surveyed parolees in the specify reported that it was harder to obtain a handgun.
And a research study of over 3 years of information on pistols recuperated in Boston shows that less weapons are unlawfully obtained from specifies where individuals are limited to lawfully buying simply one weapon a month.
GOING AFTER THE SOURCE
Cook argues for a change in the way police does its job.
"When a gang participant or another harmful individual obtains picked up that has a weapon there needs to be a great deal of questions inquired about where that weapon originated from, what their resource is," he says.
