How do drug traffickers arm themselves? If we were to take as gospel US TV shows such as Breaking Bad, we could be left with the impression that gun battles are a matter of each side pulling out semi-automatic rifles and firing shots at their enemies.
Except that does not seem to be the case at all - at least in the United States. The Small arms survey 2014, released last week, looked at over 140,000 small arms seized, light weapons and rounds of light weapon ammunition seized by police forces in eight US cities between 2007 and 2012. Of the total, 10,345 were linked to felons, drug traffickers and gang members.
77% of the weapons were simply handguns, with 70% of these being semi-automatic pistols. In contrast, rifles, such as the Kalashnikov and AR-15, made up just 12%. The number of machine guns seized was negligible.