California's tough gun-control laws are targeted at armed criminals in general and mass-shooters in particular. But they appear to have had the unintended consequence of making California gun stores unattractive to purchasers buying weapons for the Mexican drug cartels.

A Hearst Newspapers survey of guns purchased in the United States and funneled to Mexican drug traffickers found that out of 1,600 guns identified by brand name and purchase point in court documents, a mere 70 came from California.

The results dovetail with the findings of a federal law enforcement analysis earlier this year of 2,921 guns recovered in Mexico and traced to original U.S. purchases between December 2006 and November 2010.

The report concluded that 1,470 guns - 50 percent - were from Texas. A total of 852 guns - 29 percent - were from Arizona. California, by contrast, accounted for 90 guns - 3 percent of the total.

"Our assumption is that California's laws have had a dissuasive effect on traffickers purchasing weapons in the state," said Eric Olson, coordinator of several reports on gun-trafficking to Mexico that were joint projects of the Mexico Institute at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center and the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute. "They haven't stopped traffickers from going through California to deliver guns to Mexico, but they have stopped California being a source state."

California legislators approved a flurry of laws in the wake of the 1989 massacre in Stockton, in which a gunman with an AK-47 killed five children in a school playground, and the 1993 shootings at a law office at 101 California St. in San Francisco, which claimed eight victims.

Among other things, California gun laws now stipulate a 10-day waiting period on all gun purchases and outlaw rifles with military-style "assault-weapon" characteristics, .50-caliber sniper rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines.

In addition, all firearm transactions involving licensed gun dealers, sales at gun shows or between individuals must be registered. Background checks for all gun purchases are also required.

"We believe the laws have had a huge impact, especially in view of the state ban on assault weapons," said Juliet Lefwich, legal director of Legal Community Against Violence, a San Francisco-based advocacy group for gun violence prevention. Violence in Mexico is not why the laws were passed. But she said making purchases in California more difficult for gun traffickers is "an unintended benefit."

A study by retired anthropologist and computer industry consultant Griffin Dix of Kensington, found that between 1990 and 2007, California's gun mortality rate went down 44.5 percent. It was a greater reduction than the rest of the country by 16.5 percentage points, the study concluded. Dix has devoted himself to gun control in the wake of the accidental shooting death of his 15-year-old son, Kenzo Dix, in 1994.

In the Hearst survey's lone California case, Ayman Nabil Ghaly, a federal agriculture inspector at California-Mexico border posts, was charged last year with purchasing 70 guns, mostly handguns, for resale in Mexico. He bought them at gun stores in the San Diego area from June 2005 to September 2006, mostly one or two at a time.

Ghaly pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year to five months in prison and three years of supervised release.