Guns: The Flow From Legal to Illegal Commerce
There are three main ways guns transfer from legal to illegal commerce. The gun trade begins with the gun manufacturer, and then goes to the dealer to a lawful gun owner during a private legal sale. It is after the private legal sale that a gun may fall into the wrong hands. A gun may be bought legally then sold unofficially at a gun show, market or private sale. Once the gun is purchased it might then be transferred to a prohibited person in a practice known as straw buying. Most alarmingly, a gun may simply be stolen. These are all ways guns may fall into the hands of violent criminals.
