A new UC Davis study of police-confiscated guns has provided a ground-breaking profile of criminal gun activity in Sacramento. Confirming that existing databases on confiscated guns are rich sources of reliable information, the study offers a model for other communities interested in better understanding and curbing local illegal gun activity. Analyzing all the firearms the Sacramento police confiscated in 1995, researchers from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program were able to identify several factors critical to understanding and intervening in the role guns play in crime in the state capital. Included in the study were details about the guns, the suspects, the crimes and the neighborhoods where police found the guns. "Until now, law enforcement agencies, policy-makers and residents in virtually every city in California have had only anecdotal evidence of the illegal and violent use of firearms in their communities," said researcher Ellen Robinson-Haynes, who conducted the study with firearms violence prevention researcher Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency department physician and professor with the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center. Among other findings, the study showed that nearly three of every four crime guns confiscated in the city were handguns, and .22 caliber pistols and revolvers were those most commonly confiscated. Poverty was the key to an area's criminal gun activity, with economic status the most potent predictor. The study is to be presented to the Sacramento City Council.