MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A federal study of guns used in crimes has some alarming statistics for the Memphis area.

Between 2017 and 2020, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traced nearly 25,000 guns to Memphis — the fifth most among all U.S. cities.

Of the guns the ATF traced from Memphis crime scenes to their purchase in that time period, the agency could determine that the buyer and shooter were the same person less than 10% of the time.

That’s almost 80 percent lower than the national average.

More than 57 percent of the time, the ATF confirmed that the buyer and shooter were different people, and in just over a third of those cases the shooter was unknown. 

That means the number of Memphis crimes carried out using someone else’s gun could be even higher than the report indicates.

In the Bluff City, more than 87% of guns traced were pistols or revolvers. Just over 8 percent were rifles and nearly 4 percent were shotguns.

See the full results of the study here.