The Americans prefer handguns while the Mexicans prefer AR-15s
This survey really did not tell us anything we didn’t already know. I suspect the motive behind the survey was to reenergize the efforts to achieve gun controls.
REPORT: DRUG DEALERS IN U.S. PREFER HANDGUNS OVER RIFLES
By Drew MacKenzie
Newsmax
June 25, 2014
The weapons of choice for drug dealers in the United States are handguns, The Guardian reported, citing recent research on small arms.
Between 2007 and 2014, 140,000 small arms were seized in eight U.S. cities, according to the Small Army Survey 2014. The seizures included 10,345 weapons linked to criminal, drug traffickers and gang members.
Of those, more than three out of every four firearms, 77 percent, were ordinary handguns, while 70 percent of the weapons were semi-automatic pistols.
Contrary to TV crime dramas in which the bad guys often use semi-automatic rifles, the survey found that rifles such as the Kalashnikov and AR-15 made up just 12 percent of the weapons seized from criminals, The Guardian said.
The figures also showed that around 5,800 of the firearms were linked to drug-trafficking arrests alone. Seventy percent of those weapons were handguns, mostly semi-automatics.
Emile LeBrun, who helped to write the small arms survey, said: "In American popular culture, especially on television, it's common to see gang members and drug dealers wielding high-powered assault rifles. Shows like 'Breaking Bad' and 'CSI' are recent examples.
“But police actually seize far fewer of those larger long guns from these groups than handguns. That's the sense in which the report may overturn stereotypes."
The survey also revealed that the weapons of choice for drug dealers in Mexico is completely the opposite of U.S. drug traffickers. A similar small arms study last year showed that south of the border 72 percent of the guns seized were so-called long guns, such as machine guns, rifles, shotguns and sub-machine guns.
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