The United States is the only country in the world with more civilian-owned firearms than people. While most of the nearly 400 million firearms in the U.S. belong to law-abiding citizens, some portion of them inevitably end up in the wrong hands.

Every year, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives traces hundreds of thousands of firearms that were either used, or are suspected to have been used, to commit a crime. While not all firearms used in criminal acts are traced, ATF data reveals that in every state, there is at least one city that appears to account for a disproportionate share of crimes involving a firearm.

The ATF traced a total of 54,228 firearms in California in 2021. Of those, 8,036, or 14.8%, of all guns traced in the state were linked to crimes in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Los Angeles accounts for only 9.9% of the state’s total population, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey.

Sacramento accounted for the second largest share of firearm tracings in the state in 2021, at 4.1%, while San Diego ranked third, accounting for 2.7% of all firearms traced by the ATF that year. Sacramento and San Diego make up 1.3% and 3.5% of California’s total population, respectively.

All firearm trace data is from the ATF and total firearms traced by state includes only those in which a city or town was identified.

 

State	City with the most firearms linked to crime, 2021	Firearms linked to crime in city, 2021	Share of total state-wide traces from city, 2021 (%)	Share of total state pop. in city, 2021 (%)
Alabama	Mobile	1,694	19.2	3.8
Alaska	Anchorage	386	48.4	39.8
Arizona	Phoenix	4,317	35.7	22.5
Arkansas	Little Rock	1,088	30.7	6.7
California	Los Angeles	8,036	14.8	9.9
Colorado	Denver	1,854	26.3	12.3
Connecticut	Hartford	349	21.6	3.4
Delaware	Wilmington	524	31.2	7.2
Florida	Jacksonville	3,197	9.3	4.4
Georgia	Atlanta	4,083	20.0	4.6
Hawaii	Honolulu	30	26.1	24.2
Idaho	Boise	338	24.7	12.8
Illinois	Chicago	9,584	50.0	21.4
Indiana	Indianapolis	4,629	44.8	13.0
Iowa	Des Moines	596	23.2	6.7
Kansas	Wichita	1,718	40.0	13.5
Kentucky	Louisville	2,977	43.8	14.0
Louisiana	New Orleans	2,017	14.6	8.2
Maine	Portland	91	17.7	5.0
Maryland	Baltimore	2,631	26.7	9.6
Massachusetts	Boston	888	27.6	9.6
Michigan	Detroit	7,644	62.0	6.4
Minnesota	Minneapolis	1,183	25.7	7.5
Mississippi	Gulfport	533	11.3	2.4
Missouri	St. Louis	3,378	33.1	4.9
Montana	Billings	286	24.1	10.7
Nebraska	Omaha	1,272	56.8	25.0
Nevada	Las Vegas	5,110	75.9	20.7
New Hampshire	Manchester	385	54.6	8.4
New Jersey	Newark	570	12.2	3.3
New Mexico	Albuquerque	2,418	58.8	26.7
New York	New York City	5,150	50.0	43.4
North Carolina	Charlotte	3,837	16.7	8.3
North Dakota	Fargo	189	24.7	16.2
Ohio	Columbus	3,763	18.2	7.6
Oklahoma	Tulsa	2,054	38.7	10.4
Oregon	Portland	1,339	24.5	15.4
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	6,113	39.9	12.3
Rhode Island	Providence	329	49.4	17.3
South Carolina	Columbia	1,782	16.9	2.7
South Dakota	Rapid City	446	53.6	8.4
Tennessee	Memphis	6,440	41.5	9.2
Texas	Houston	11,600	25.5	7.9
Utah	Salt Lake City	456	15.2	6.2
Vermont	Burlington	39	16.0	7.0
Virginia	Richmond	1,341	11.0	2.6
Washington	Seattle	666	11.9	9.5
West Virginia	Charleston	424	25.0	2.7
Wisconsin	Milwaukee	3,454	48.9	9.8
Wyoming	Casper	73	24.6	10.2

 

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.