California has succeeded in drastically reducing anonymous and undocumented gun sales and sales of military-style weapons by introducing tighter controls to gun shows reveals a study in the June issue of Injury Prevention.
Eight gun shows in California and 20 shows in Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Florida were monitored. These states are major outside sources for guns used in crime in California.
California is unique in regulating these events and prohibiting undocumented sales between private parties. Promoters must be licensed and gun transactions must be processed by a licensed retailer, a background check conducted and a record kept.
California has also banned sales of .50 BMG calibre rifles and handguns which have failed basic safety tests plus restricted sales of some military-style assault weapons. Also attendees who bring guns to sell must affix a tag to the gun recording identifying information.
Armed attendees were more than five times as common in states outside of California. No direct sales of firearms between attendees were seen in California. In other states, such undocumented gun sales appeared to be as common as sales by licensed gun dealers. And illegal 'straw purchases, in which buyers buy guns for parties other than themselves were 6.6 times more common in the other states. In three 'straw purchases outside of California, the buyer bought multiple guns.
Vendors in states outside California were 2.5 times more likely to sell assault weapons and all sellers of assault-type handgun and fully automatic weapons were in other states