Lax gun laws in the United States are likely fueling an international firearms trade made possible by underground websites like the recently shuttered AlphaBay, according to a new report.
A recent investigation of 18 different online marketplaces that facilitate illegal firearms sales found 60 percent of the weapons being sold originated in the U.S., concluded RAND Europe and University of Manchester researchers in a report released Thursday.
Yet while the majority of firearms being sold shipped from inside the U.S., the report’s authors said Europe represents the largest market for dark web gun deals, “generating revenues that are around five times higher than the U.S.”
“The dominant position of the United States in this ranking is not entirely surprising given the legal status of firearms in the country,” its authors added. After all, they wrote, an average of 89 registered civilian firearms exist in the U.S. for every 100 residents, effectively letting the U.S. lead the world in terms of gun ownership.
“While it is not possible to establish a causal link between (legal) civilian ownership and scale of illegal trade, it is reasonable to believe that such high quantities pose significant arms control challenges,” the report said.
Dark web vendors are enabling the circulation of illegal weapons already on the black market in addition to offering customers “better performing, more recent firearms for the same, or lower, price, than what would be available on the street,” the report said.
Researchers based their report on investigations into 18 websites that operate on the dark web, the portion of the web not indexed by search engines and intended to be accessed with specialized software that makes it difficult to identify their operators and visitors.
Scouring the sites, the researchers found 811 different listings from 52 distinct vendors offering weapons or related items like ammunition and explosives, according to the report.
While firearms represent less than 1 percent of total items sold on dark web marketplaces, the report’s authors said the “volume can be considered sufficiently high to be cause for concern for policy makers and law enforcement agencies.”
On the now defunct AlphaBay, for instance, researchers found 414 arms-related advertisements among the website’s nearly 37,000 listings during a one-week span last September, making it the most popular dark web marketplace in terms of gun ads before it abruptly shuttered July 4.
The Justice Department separately announced Thursday that it shut down AlphaBay this month as the result of a previously undisclosed law enforcement operation aimed on eradicating dark web marketplaces.
“This is the largest dark net marketplace takedown in history,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a press conference announcing the operation. “Make no mistake, the forces of law and justice face a new challenge from the criminals and transnational criminal organizations who think they can commit their crimes with impunity by ’going dark.’ This case, pursued by dedicated agents and prosecutors, says you are not safe,” he added.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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