In Hawaii, authorities ran traces on 105 guns in 2012, finding that 50 — or 47.6 percent — were originally purchased outside of the state.
Fifteen of those guns, the largest share, came from California.
Raw, disconnected statistics.
First of all, we should always be suspicious when someone leads a story with ratios and percentages instead of the raw underlying numbers. This is a typical tactic which makes a stat sound bigger than it really is (66% of our employees are women, versus We have 3 employees, and 2 are women).
Secondly, do these numbers actually mean anything useful? Since most guns traced in a criminal investigation were originally purchased out of state, what do we conclude? Will banning guns being brought in from California reduce the number of guns traced from out of state by fifteen, or 30 percent? Should we add another layer of "qualifying hoops" to jump through for people moving from California? Should we require all guns originally purchased in California go through a longer waiting period or place their owners on a special "watch list?" Of course not.
Lastly, this story doesn't say these guns were actually used in a crime, only that they were traced in the course of an investigation. The owner could have been arrested for dangerous driving and a firearm was found in the car.
These reports may be interesting to some, but I think too many use this kind of raw data and any conclusions they concoct to support an existing agenda.