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Law-enforcement  experts  say there are several other reasons they
expect the computerized gun-tracking system to be successful. For one
thing, all guns manufactured in the United States or imported from
abroad must bear a serial number and can be sold initially only by
Federally licensed firearms dealers.  This means that identification
numbers and paperwork already exist to tell where the gun entered the
market.
But new work by the firearms bureau in developing its computer system
and research by Mr. Kennedy in Boston have made it easier to determine
how these guns get into the hands of juveniles, the experts say.
With encouragement from the Clinton Administration, the firearms
agency three years ago began pushing the development of software to
analyze the records it had long been assembling on illegal guns.
One result was that the firearms bureau discovered that less than 1
percent of the 160,000 Federally licensed gun dealers are responsible
for 51 percent of all the guns used in crimes, Mr. Vince said. This
means that there is only a very small number of licensed dealers who
take part in trafficking, making it easier to trace guns. These dealers
may sell guns directly to juveniles or through "straw" purchasers who
resell them to adolescents.
Drawing on data assembled by the Boston police over the past five
years, Mr. Kennedy discovered that most juveniles buy semiautomatic
pistols that are less than two years old, or "new in the box," in
street parlance. Unlike adult criminals, young people do not want an
older, cheaper gun.
"Basically, with gang kids," said Mr. Evans, the Boston police
commissioner, "guns are like sneakers, they want the latest goods."
The youths are also worried that a used weapon "has a body on it" -
been used in a previous crime - which could lead to a longer prison
sentence if they are caught, Mr. Kennedy said.
"This turns out to be the best possible news," Mr. Kennedy explained,
"because the newer a gun is, the easier it is to trace."
The original dealer, he said, is still likely to be at his listed
address, the purchaser of record will be available and there is less
chance the gun has been stolen or given away or that the serial number
has been destroyed.
There have been some striking successes.
In one case, the Boston police, in collaboration with the firearms
agency, found that all the handguns being bought by gang members in
one neighborhood originated in Mississippi. They were being purchased
by Jose Andrade, a student from Boston at Mississippi State University,
who was bringing the guns home to sell on weekends.
Mr. Andrade was convicted in United States District Court in Boston
earlier thIs year on Federal gun trafficking charges. In the five
months before Mr. Andrade's arrest, Mr. Evans said, there were 91
shootings in the neighborhood, but only 20 shootings in the same time
period after his arrest
In another test of the program in New York, Federal agents traced
4,000 guns seized there to one store in Alabama. A total of 35 people
have been arrested for bringing the handguns to New York and
reselling them there illegally, according to Mr. Vince of the firearms
bureau.
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