****   P U B L I C A T I O N S    ****

<*>  NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE (NIJ)     

* Impact Evaluation of the Public Safety and Recreational
Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994: Final Report

Title XI of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act of 1994 banned semiautomatic assault weapons and "large-
capacity" magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Researchers
at The Urban Institute conducted an NIJ-funded study of the
ban's impact, with particular emphasis on violent and drug
trafficking crime. They found effects on prices and
production in primary gun markets; transfers in secondary
markets; the frequency of assault weapon use in crime; and
the number of deaths, victims, and wounds related to the use
of assault weapons. Legal-market prices for assault weapons
and exact copies peaked around the date of the ban and fell
sharply within months afterward. Assault weapon thefts (an
indicator of activity in the secondary gun market, where
formal records are not kept) increased only slightly after
the ban. Requests for traces of assault weapons recovered in
crime declined 20 percent nationally in the first year of
the ban and rose 7 percent in the following 6 months.
Although gun murders decreased 6.7 percent in the year
following the ban, it is not clear that this was a result of
the ban. No evidence was found of a post-ban decrease in the
number of victims per gun homicide incident, the number of
gunshot wounds per victim, or the proportion of gunshot
victims with multiple wounds. The incidence of police
officer death from gunshot wounds dropped since mid-1995,
but because the data are partial and preliminary, this
decrease cannot be attributed to the assault weapons ban
with any certainty.

"Impact Evaluation of the Public Safety and Recreational
Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994: Final Report" was
prepared by The Urban Institute for the National Institute
of Justice and is available on the NCJRS World Wide Web site
(http://www.urban.org/crime/aw/awfin1.htm).