More Guns Are Traced by the Government per Person in Louisiana Than in Any Other State

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 22, 12:12PM EST

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More Guns Are Traced by the Government per Person in Louisiana Than in Any Other State — © Jeff Swensen / Getty Images News via Getty Images

There is no gun culture like America’s gun culture anywhere in the world, where there are more civilian-owned guns than the entire U.S. population. Though most owners use guns responsibly, many guns also end up being used in crime. When firearms are found at crime scenes, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives goes through a process to trace the gun’s origin and try to determine who was last in possession of it. And of all states, the ATF traced more guns in Louisiana than any other, relative to the population.

Gun sales remain extraordinarily high nationwide. The FBI conducts about 3 million firearm background checks a month, with at least half for new gun sales. Some firearms that are originally purchased legally end up being used in crimes or find their way to the black market. (Also see, the cities with the most guns traced to crime in every state.)

According to the ATF, the first step in tracing a gun is determining the manufacturer and/or importer of the gun, which then leads to the holder of the original Federal Firearms License that sold the gun. From there, the ATF finds firearm transaction records to identify the first purchaser and then investigate what that person did with the gun and whether it was still in their possession at the time a crime was committed.

In Louisiana, the ATF traced 13,702 guns in 2021, or 296.3 per 100,000 people, the most of any state. The most traced firearm chamber was a 9mm, with 5,727 traces, or 41.8% of the total. The second-most traced firearm chamber was a .40 caliber, with 1,757 traces, or 12.8% of the total. The third most traced firearm chamber was a .22 caliber, with 1,033 traces, or7.5% of the total. (Here are the firearm calibers used the most to commit crimes in the U.S.)

Only four other states had above 200 guns traced per 100,000 people in 2021. These are Tennessee at 219.9, North Calina at 217.2, Nevada at 212.7, and South Carolina at 205.4.

See 24/7 Wall St.’s list of how many guns used to commit crimes are traced in every state.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.