from Guy Smith’s gunfacts:

http://home.attbi.com/~guys/GunFacts.pdf

Fact: Only 0.7% of convicts bought their firearms at gun shows. 39.2% obtained them from
illegal street dealers.149
Fact: Only 1.7% – 2% of guns used in criminal offenses were purchased at gun shows.150
Fact: Only 5% of metropolitan police departments believe that gun shows are a problem.151
Fact: Only 3.5% of youthful offenders reported that they obtained their last handgun at a gun
show.152
Fact: 93% of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally (i.e., not at gun stores or gun shows).153
Fact: At most 14% of all firearms traced in investigations were purchased at a gun show.154 But
this includes just traced weapons, which overstates the acquisition rate.
Fact: Gun dealers are federally licensed, and must follow the rules for sales regardless of
whether they are dealing from a storefront or a gun show.155
Fact: There is no such thing as an ?unlicensed dealer?, except for people that buy and sell
antique ? known as curio ? weapons.
Fact: This 25-50% figure can only be achieved if you include dealers not selling guns at these
shows. These non-gun dealers include knife makers, ammunition dealers, accessories dealers,
military artifact traders, clothing vendors, bumper sticker sellers, and hobbyists. In short, 50% of
the vendors at shows are not selling firearms at all!

149 Bureau of Justice Statistics, ?Firearm Use by Offenders?, November 2001
150 National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. According to an NIJ study
released in December 1997 “Homicide in Eight U.S. Cities”
151 Center to Prevent Handgun Violence survey of 37 police departments in large cities, reported in a CPHV report
titled ?On the Front Line: Making Gun Interdiction Work?, February 1998
152 Timothy S. Bynum, Todd G. Beitzel, Tracy A. O?Connell & Sean P. Varano, ?Patterns in Gun Acquisition and
Use by Youthful Offenders in Michigan?, 1999
153 BATF, 1999
154 BATF, June 2000, covers only July 1996 through December 1998.
155 BATF, 2000