It was estimated the Confederates received thousands of tons of gunpowder, half a million rifles, and several hundred cannons from the blockade runners. The smuggling of arms into the South by blockade runners carrying British supplies were easily facilitated using ports in the British colonies of Canada and the Bahamas, where the Union Navy could not enter. British merchants and bankers funded the purchase of arms and construction of ships being outfitted as blockade runners which later carried war supplies bound for Southern ports. In order to increase its arsenal, the Confederacy looked to Britain as a major source of arms.
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According to the paper, the researchers identified 52 unique vendors selling weapons or similar items such as ammunition, explosives, or components such as silencers, spread across 811 listings and 18 markets (some sites have explicitly banned the sale of weapons). Now, a new study from the non-profit research organization RAND Europe has attempted to provide some more clarity on the trade, estimating that weapons-related listings generate tens of thousands of dollars worth of transactions per month. “The arms trade on the dark web is a drop in the ocean compared to the legal trade of arms worldwide,” Persi Paoli said.
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Texas’ lawsuit called ATF’s new rule “layer upon layer of hopeless nonsense … which no ordinary person could hope to understand.” “ATF simply has no authority to water down the text to make it easier for bureaucrats to harass gun owners,” the Texas lawsuit said. When ATF did so, more than 20 states including Texas sued the agency in federal court, saying the change has exposed millions of gun owners to criminal liability for a “whole host of innocent conduct.” Gun safety advocates say background checks keep guns out of the hands of criminals and other dangerous people and decrease murders and suicides. The agency said unlicensed dealers are the largest source of illegal gun trafficking in the U.S., amounting to 40%.
Rhode Island prohibits any person from selling a handgun to someone whom he or she has reasonable cause to believe is providing false information.54 Minnesota has a similar law that applies to handguns and assault weapons.55 Eight states (California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) have laws that may facilitate prosecution of individuals who transfer firearms to traffickers under certain circumstances.49 Under federal regulations, ATF must maintain and operate the National Tracing Center to process requests from federal, state, local, and foreign law enforcement agencies for the tracing of crime guns.31 However, provisions that have been attached to US Department of Justice appropriations bills since 2003 have significantly impeded efforts to trace crime guns. Although the majority of trafficking investigations involve straw purchases, corrupt retail gun dealers account for a higher volume of guns diverted into the illegal market than any other single trafficking channel. From that data, the researchers estimate firearms and related goods generate 136 sales per month, and a monthly revenue of $80,000.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, enter the “ghost guns.” These are self-made firearms that criminals can assemble in their basements. There’s a big difference between the street criminals who buy their guns on the black market and the mass shooters who often obtain their weapons legally. Only 10% of criminals bought their guns from a retail store, and less than 1%—yes, you read that right—less than 1% got their firearms at a gun show.
Law enforcement officials refer to widely publicized cases of Canadians being convicted of selling legally purchased guns on the black market. “Straw purchasing” is when a legal Canadian firearm licence-holder buys a gun and then sells it on the black market. Some of these guns were stolen from their legitimate owners and resold, others were bought legally by Canadians and then offered for sale illegally for a profit. But even as programs like this seek to get guns out of circulation, fresh ones are being added through the black market. Our team searched the dark web and put together a list of the most active dark web marketplaces in order to assist you in monitoring illegal trade of products, cybercrime activity, and dark web trends in the dark web space. The site also allegedly offered other illicit listings, including firearms, computer and ATM hacking lessons and assassins for hire.
The trail led to two men who were using the web, including a site called Armslist—the so-called Craigslist of Guns—to find whatever Villarreal wanted. They use pseudonymous wallets, privacy coins (like Monero), mixers, chain-hopping, and non-KYC platforms to obscure transaction trails. WeTheNorth is a Canadian market established in 2021 that also serves international users. BidenCash’s rapid rise and focus on financial data make it a significant concern for cybersecurity professionals.
The current US end-use monitoring program focuses on Man-Portable Air Defense Systems and Anti-Tank/All-purpose Tactical Guided Missiles because of the classified information used to build those weapons. However, while these actions evidence transparency, US end-use monitoring is relatively ineffective in Ukraine due to the frequent movement of weapons along front lines. Russia is actively trying to disincentivize US support for Kyiv, which necessitates caution when discussing illicit weapons trading in Europe. Although it is difficult to confirm when and where weapons are stolen, the sheer scale of weapon transfers means that it is highly likely that some weapons will go missing over the course of the conflict. In early 2022, a Russian-led criminal organization operating in Ukraine reportedly stole at least one grenade launcher, a machine gun, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition to sabotage and destabilize Ukraine’s efforts to secure the region. The invasion of Ukraine has led to a larger quantity of weapons entering Europe, and thus a greater possibility for weapons to go missing.
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Along with clearly illegal transfers of weapons within and beyond Ukraine, there are murkier questions about transfers of illegal types of weapons from the United States to Ukraine. Contrarily, monitoring efforts have paid little attention to small arms and light weapons, yet those are the weapons more likely to be stolen by criminal organizations in Ukraine. Reports about Finnish gangsters, French rioters, Nigerian fighters, and Mexican cartels gaining weapons—like rifles and grenade launchers—from Ukraine have all been debunked as Russian propaganda attempting to sway the United States and NATO allies to decrease arms transfers.
The advocacy group Everytown For Gun Safety looked at 9 million posts on Armslist from 2018 to 2020 and found that more than three-quarters of listings by unlicensed sellers did not require a background check. The spa mass shooting case went to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, which ruled that Armslist was protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the same law that grants websites like Facebook, Google, and Twitter immunity from liability for content or comments posted by users. With a low-tech aesthetic similar to Craigslist’s and a simple user interface, Armslist quickly grew to become one of the most popular sites for gun sellers and buyers. The government of Mexico sued several major U.S.-based gun manufacturers in August, alleging the companies bear responsibility for the firepower the cartels now wield. Mexico saw upwards of 150,000 homicides linked to organized crime from 2006 to 2018, and the homicide rate has remained at historically high levels over the last two years.
Weapons Available To Everyone
For example, buying and selling writing materials such as pens, pencils, and books are not exactly illegal. It can simply be a virtual platform where goods and services are exchanged for money or other means of barter. Virginia also penalizes any other person who willfully and intentionally aids or abets such person. Our reports bring you the latest cutting-edge research and analysis about strategies to end our country’s gun violence crisis at every level. To build a safer America—one where children and parents in every neighborhood can learn, play, work, and worship without fear of gun violence—we need you standing beside us in this fight.
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- Although they acquired some weapons from South African arms dealers and sympathizers from abroad, internal theft and improvisation remained a primary source of small arms logistics.
- Around 70 percent of the illegal firearms seized in Mexico are traced back to U.S. sales, according to the latest ATF data.
- No, these are criminals obtaining their weapons through illicit channels that are completely untouched by gun control laws.
- These weapons present real threats of conflict escalation and great harm to civilian populations in both Ukraine and Russia.
About a third of the states have laws that prosecutors may use to penalize gun purchasers who intend to traffic the gun, in certain circumstances. For additional information about the records used in crime gun tracing, including additional information about the Tiahrt Amendments, see our summary on Maintaining Records of Gun Sales.34 We won’t rest until every state has strong gun safety laws and every community is free from the fear of gun violence.
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The recipients or end users of the trafficked firearms tended to be previously convicted felons (60%) and young adults aged 25 to 34 (48%). Trafficked firearms were also used in aggravated assaults in nearly 19% of cases, homicide in approximately 11% of cases, and attempted homicide in more than 9% of cases. Rifles accounted for the second highest percentage of firearms in these investigations at nearly 19%. In nearly 58% of the cases, five or fewer firearms were trafficked. State Department introduced new protocols in October 2022 to monitor Western-supplied arms, Russian outlets distorted the initiative to suggest it was a response to widespread weapons trafficking. Russian state media amplified these claims, with RT running an “investigation” into alleged Western arms sales, despite fact-checkers, including the BBC World Service Disinformation Team, debunking the evidence.
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Many gun owners don’t keep detailed records of their firearms, making it difficult to track and recover stolen weapons. ATF recognizes the role firearms play in violent crimes and pursues an integrated regulatory and enforcement strategy. In instances where trafficked firearms had been used in a crime, the most frequently identified violation was felon in possession of a firearm, in more than 40% of the cases.
During his trial, Lyburd told the court that buying the Glock online was “just like buying a bar of chocolate.” It became an FBI target when nearly a million people were using it and sales rose to roughly $1.3 billion over about two years, the agency said. You may have first heard about the dark Web back in 2013 when the FBI shut down a popular marketplace site called Silk Road.
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Similarly, Georgia68 and Virginia penalize any person who attempts to solicit, persuade, encourage, or entice any dealer to transfer or otherwise convey a firearm other than to the actual buyer. See our summary on Background Checks Procedure for information about such laws. Maryland prohibits any person from transferring a handgun or assault weapon to a transferee that the transferor has reasonable cause to believe is a participant in a “straw purchase,” as defined above.50 Maryland prohibits any person from knowingly or willfully participating in a “straw purchase” of a handgun or assault weapon. California law prohibits acquiring a firearm for the purpose of selling, loaning, or transferring it in violation of California law. Among other things, the Tiahrt Amendments prohibit ATF from releasing firearm trace data for use by cities, states, researchers, litigants, and members of the public, except in aggregate form.32
Although they acquired some weapons from South African arms dealers and sympathizers from abroad, internal theft and improvisation remained a primary source of small arms logistics. Before World War I, the Ulster Unionist Council initiated the Larne gun-running operation in April 1914 where they successfully brought in weapons and weapons from the German Empire using motor vehicles to transport the cargo inland. During The Troubles, the Provisional IRA implemented a sophisticated weapons smuggling network where small arms were primarily acquired from American sympathisers and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Gun cultures, such as in Germany, where the “taken-for-granted cultural practice of carrying a handgun,” increases illicit SALW because guns are viewed as a way to enhance masculinity and status.
