Orange County Is Top Gun in Crime Guns Traced Here on Per Capita Basis

When it comes to the total number of guns used in crimes, more can be traced to Los Angeles County than any other in Southern California, but on a per capita basis, Orange County is tops.

That's the conclusion of data released by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and reported by the nonprofit investigative-journalism project California Watch.
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Here are the rankings, in order of most gun traces per capita, listed by county, 2009 population, number of gun traces and number per 100,000 people:

Orange County / 3,026,786 / 3,646 / 120.4578057

Los Angeles County / 9,848,011 / 11,798 / 119.800841

San Bernardino County / 2,017,673 / 2,233 / 110.6720465

Imperial County / 166,874 / 168 / 100.6747606

Riverside County / 2,125,440 / 1,822 / 85.72342668

Ventura County / 802,983 / 597 / 74.34777573

San Luis Obispo County / 266,971 / 146 / 54.68758779

San Diego County / 3,053,793 / 1,371 / 44.89498797

Santa Barbara County / 407,057 / 21 / 5.158982649

One thing that stood out for California Watch reporter Ryan Gabrielson was Orange County and San County are similar in size, but Orange had twice the number of crime guns.

The 22,000 guns that were used in crimes and came from Southern California represented two-thirds of the state's gun haul. The region accounts for 58 percent of the state's population. California, as the country's most-populous state, consistently has the largest number of firearm-involved homicides.

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