Denial of handgun purchase: A description of the affected population and acontrolled study of their handgun preferences

This study provided descriptive data on the denial of handgun purchases in California in 1991 and compared the handgun preferences of persons denied, as a result of prior criminal activity, to those of the general population of handgun purchasers. The study population consisted of all 3,589 persons whose handgun purchases were denied in the study year and a random sample o f 7,197 persons whose handgun purchases were approved. Of those denied a ha ndgun purchase, 3,276 (91.3 percent) were denied as a result of prior crimi nal activity; 2,014 (56.1 percent) had been convicted of a violent crime. F ewer than 1 percent of all federally licensed firearms dealers in the state were involved in more than half of all instances of the denial of handgun purchases. Compared to the general population of handgun purchasers, person s denied the right to purchase a handgun as a result of prior criminal acti vity were more likely to select handguns with barrel lengths of three inche s or less (risk ratio [RR] = 1.45; 95 percent confidence interval [CI] = 1. 38, 1.54) and were nearly twice as likely to select small, inexpensive hand guns (RR = 1.91, 95 percent CI = 1.76-2.07). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.