The weapon of choice for Baltimore criminals is the handgun, with almost half purchased at seven area stores, a yearlong federal study has concluded.
Handguns accounted for 82 percent of all firearms that were used in a crime and were recovered by Baltimore police from April 1, 1993, to March 31, 1994, the study found. More than 45 percent of the firearms traced in the study, conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, were tracked to seven gun dealers, two of them in Baltimore and five close to the city.
Baltimore Gunsmith Co. in the 200 block of S. Broadway was the source of 131 guns traced in the study, the most by far. It was followed by Northeast Gun & Pawn Shop in Northeast Baltimore, which was the source of 53 guns. Others included Valley Gun Shop in Parkville, with 34 guns; Clyde's Sport Shop in Lansdowne, with 31 guns; On Target Inc. in Severn, with 23 guns; Bart's Sports World in Glen Burnie with 22; and Walter's Gun Chamber in Parkville, with 20 guns.
The city's problem, the study said, is not dealers selling guns to criminals, but with the resale of weapons.
"Firearms are being purchased one, two and three at a time by a 'straw purchaser' who, in turn, provides this firearm to the criminal," the study said.
Margaret D. Moore, special agent in charge of the ATF's Baltimore division, said the problem is a local one. "We do it to ourselves," she said. "It's a cottage industry. People are committing crimes of opportunity. People are going out and buying guns and giving them to their friends who go out and commit crimes."
Gun dealers say they try to weed out potential illegal gun deals, but it is not always possible.
"We don't control who comes in and buys guns," said Melvin Abrams, owner of Valley Gun Shop. "Every gun that goes out of here, [the buyer's] application has to be checked by the Maryland State Police before we can sell it to them. If the man has no record, we are obligated to sell [him] the gun. So there is no fault on us."
Mr. Abrams said that occasionally, he will have a customer at the counter and a second person will come up, nudge the first person, and point out a gun for purchase.
"When we see that, the deal is automatically killed, because we know it's a straw man sale and whatever information we have is turned over to the ATF," he said.
The Baltimore Trace Study was conducted by the ATF with the cooperation of the Baltimore City Police Department, which provided a report on every gun it recovered during the one-year period.
