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Tracing Bullets and Guns to Sideline Scofflaw Dealers

Thomas B. Cole, MD, MPH

JAMA. 2003;290:583-585.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Emergency physicians, public health experts, and law enforcement agencies are taking a unique approach to preventing gun violence: tracing guns and bullets used in violent crimes to help quash illegal trafficking by unlicensed gun dealers.

A law enforcement officer examines a "hit" from an automated database that compares two or more bullets to determine if they were fired by the same weapon. (Photo credit: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives)

Such an effort could, they reason, make a dent in gun-related violence by identifying and prosecuting such dealers, making the weapons harder to come by. According to Philip J. Cook, PhD, professor of public policy at Duke University, surveys have indicated that about one fourth of convicted criminals purchase their guns illegally from unlicensed dealers.

TACKLING HIGH-RISK ENVIRONMENTS

One component of this collaborative effort is the Violent Injury Reporting System, at the Medical College . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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