How important are new guns to organized crime in North America?

I keep reading two things (I can provide examples if needed). They both seem true to me and it also seems like most people agree with them.

1. There are tons and tons of guns in North America (example: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/fact-there-are-400-million-privately-owned-guns-us-72936). Many of them are owned by organized crime groups or are “available” to them through the secondary market (example: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-flow-of-guns-from-the-u-s-to-mexico-is-getting-lost-in-the-border-debate ; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610592/ ; https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=11383063823953407989&hl=en&as_sdt=0,15).

2. North American organized crime groups obtain (often steal) and manufacture tons of new guns every year, many of them for their own use rather than resale (example: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=11383063823953407989&hl=en&as_sdt=0,15
; https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-11-03/ghost-guns-california-gun-shows-kits)
Assuming you agree with these, I’m wondering how they fit together.

More specifically, how important is the flow of new guns to organized crime groups? How much are they just diversifying their sourcing. How much do they really “need” all of the new guns to stay up-to-date or replace old stock, dispose of incriminating weapons, etc? How much is it just another revenue source? Is it even possible to get a good idea about this given the limited availability of information and the diversity of circumstances across the continent?