“I Know a Guy and He’s Got Guns Galore”: Accessing Crime Guns in the Australian Illicit Firearms Market

ABSTRACT

Despite there being a highly regulated firearms market, Australian criminals continue to have significant access to illicit firearms. This paper focuses specifically on the role of brokers in the illicit firearms market. It draws from 75 in-depth interviews with prisoners convicted of serious gun-related crimes in Australia. We note how these actors occupy the margins of our interview data yet are seemingly central to the supply and circulation of firearms. Six main means of illicit firearm acquisition are identified, ranging from supply through family members to being vouched for by a known person who provides a bridge to the appropriate supplier (or ‘guy’). The role of straw purchasers, theft, and/or manufacturing in the illicit firearm trade are also explored. We conclude with a provisional profile of the ‘middleman’ and comment on the resilience of the underworld code and its protection of key actors in gun crime milieux as well as implications for prevention and law enforcement.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under DP150100619 “Understanding and preventing gun violence: A qualitative study.”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The National Rifle Association, the powerful US pro-gun lobby group, periodically issues critical statements of Australian gun laws post 1996 as being “repressive”. See O’Malley (2019)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DP150100619].

Notes on contributors

David Bright

David Bright is a criminologist and forensic psychologist. His research interests include criminal networks, organised crime, and terrorism. He is Director of the Melbourne Illicit Networks Lab which conducts ground-breaking research using social network analysis and related approaches to study organised criminal groups.

Mark Halsey

Mark Halsey is a Professor of Criminology and Criminology Research Lead at Flinders University, Australia. His research interests span youth offending, violence, prisons and desistance from crime. His latest books include Generations Through Prison (Routledge) and Power and Pain in the Modern Prison (Clarendon).

Andrew Goldsmith

Andrew Goldsmith, Until December 2021, he was Director of the Centre for Crime Policy and Research at Flinders University. Between 2009 and 2012, he was Executive Director of the Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention, University of Wollongong, Australia. His research interests include police governance, organised crime and corruption, and cybercrime.

Sharyn Goudie

Sharyn Goudie has a PhD in Sociology, Criminology and Gender Studies. Prior to academia, Sharyn worked in the not-for-profit sector with young people and those experiencing homelessness and mental ill-health. Her research explores the implications of social policy on the nature of home and citizenship and strategies to strengthen service responses. Currently Sharyn is a Research Fellow in Flinders University’s Social Work Innovation Research Living Space (SWIRLS)