What firearms/calibers are the criminals using?

[BigBlueDodge]

So I was reading a post on seized guns, and srothsteing made a really informative post about the quality of guns that are seized by law enforcement. That got me to thinking about what are the bad guys using? I read a long post on another site (can't remember which) from a mortician and his experiences of working on deceased people who had be shot. He indicated that most of the people he saw were shot with the smaller caliber guns (.380, .32acp, 38 special). I don't know if that was specific to his area, or could be applied to all areas. I know we have law enforcement on these boards, so I'd like to hear about your experiences. In particular, I'd like to know

1. What types of guns you are seeing being seized
2. What general calibers seem to be common amongst teh bad guys
3. What type of ammunition is used (fmj, cheap hollow points, or good quality self defense)

I think it's help for us CHL holders to know what the bad guys are carrying

[USA1]

from watching COPS the TV show , i see a lot of .25's and .380's ....usually the street level thugs .
...glad i have a forty five

[snorri]

Criminals use what they can get their hands on. Many street punks carry cheap guns. Easy to conceal is important for them. Reliability and stopping power isn't a priority because they use their guns to scare their victims. Many criminals use stolen guns but even on the street a Glock/Springfield/S&W costs more than a Raven/Bryco/Jennings/Jimenez Arms. Cheap guns mean the criminals have more money for their drug addictions. Criminals also use full size 9/357/40/45 guns, especially criminals who want to do more than scare their victims into cooperating, but cheap small caliber guns are more common from what I saw.

[bdickens]

Whatever they can steal.

[GlockFan]

Amen brother

[Eddie2612]

This is an interesting question..

I would imagine that most criminals are shooting FMJ's... from seeing all those shows where the criminal shows the scars from "where I got shot" the holes seem pretty small.. I was in a gun shop one day and a couple cops were in there.. Apparently some morticial was telling them that he sees "gangbangers with all these 9mm holes / scars from gunshots" but he never saw any 40's or 45's .. meaning that if a bad guy got nailed with one of those he didn't get a scar - he got dead..

with that said I carry a 9mm Glock 19 - but I carry with CorBon or Buffalo Bore Hollow Points.. both are hard hitting defense ammo (significantly different than FMJ's)... I would not feel undergunned.. I would like to find a holster for my 45 though..

[The Annoyed Man]

Over the period of 5 years working in an ER, I saw lots of shot up bad guys. Probably 80% of them were shot with .22 LR weapons. The percentages went down exponentially as caliber size increased.

[BigBlueDodge]

what do you mean by this?

The percentages went down exponentially as caliber size increased

The percentages of what?

[Frost]

The percentages of what?

He probably means it was something like this.

80% 22lr
10% .32
5% .380
3% 9mm
2% .40
1% .45

I thought that .380 and 9mm were more popular with the criminal element.

[nils]

I really am not concerned about what they're carrying...as long as I have my .45 Defender, I'm doing OK.....

[surprise_i'm_armed]

Hey sports fans, I was surfing the web somewhere reading gun articles and
found one that reported on a study of criminals and their gun habits. It
was an interesting read, but I can't post the link because I don't remember
where I found it. The sample of bad guys they talked to was rather small,
maybe 80 or 100 bad guys, but here goes:

Most bad guys carry whatever they can steal or buy illegally on the street,
so they are not always carrying what they would like.

They do not use holsters, instead preferring "Mexican carry".
50% preferred front of pants carry, 50% preferred SOB (small of back).

When travelling with girlfriends and stopped by LEO's, they give the gun
to the girlfriend, who is much less likely to be searched. An interesting side
note was that female LEO's were more likely to pat them down thoroughly
during a stop, moreso than male LEO's.

If the bad guy does not have a girl with him, he may hide his piece in his
hoodie by wearing the hood down behind his neck, and tucking the gun in
the lowest point of the draping hoodie.

Although a general perception of BG's is that they don't shoot their guns much,
many will go out to a dump, woods, or other rural area and blast away to get more
familiar with their guns. Also true gangsters are much more likely to shoot during a
crime commission. They don't worry about their CHL being revoked.

Some bad guys learn from the cops to carry a BUG. So if you ever encounter one of
these, don't assume they only have 1 gun.

Let's stay armed and careful out there. Carry more ammo than you originally
thought was enough.

[apostate]

You can get some interesting factoids by reading, talking with peace officers, and attending training. I heard many interesting things at the Rangemaster tactical conference in Tulsa, for example. However, I would caution everyone to not lose sight of the fact that most statistics about criminals have a built-in sampling bias toward those who got caught.