The report "examines troves of new data released to Mayors Against Illegal Guns by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and for the first time demonstrates the connection between laws designed to deter illegal trafficking and lower crime gun export rates."
Mississippi, West Virginia, Kentucky, Alaska, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Nevada, and Georgia were the ten states that supplied crime guns at the highest rates - each of them supplying guns used in crimes at a rate more than twice the national average.
Not only do they supply a disproportionate amount of crime guns, but these states are also more likely to be the source of guns recovered in crimes within two years of the original sale, which the ATF says is a key sign of illegal trafficking.
The stakes are high: 12,000 people per year are murdered with guns in the United States. If one state ignores a gap in its laws, other states have to deal with the deadly consequences.At their interactive site tracetheguns.org (HERE), you can read the full report and you can click on a state to get export and import data and click on a law to see which states have enacted it and how the law is linked to illegal gun trafficking. The ten laws listed include:
-- Allows Criminal Penalties for Buying a Gun for Someone who Can't
-- Allows Criminal Penalties for Buying a Gun with False Information
-- Allows Criminal Penalties for Selling a Gun without a Proper Background Check
-- Requires Background Checks for all Handgun Sales at Gun Shows
-- Requires Purchase Permit for All Handgun Sales
-- Grants Law Enforcement Discretion in Issuing Concealed Carry Permits
-- Prohibits Violent Misdemeanor Criminals from Possessing Guns
-- Requires Reporting Lost or Stolen Guns to Law Enforcement
-- Allows Local Communities to Enact Gun Laws
-- Allows Inspections of Gun Dealers
The interactivity is a little clunky making it a but unwieldy to navigate but hopefully that will improve over time.
Thank You for the recent info on the blackmarket gun industry. I havent heard nothing about this, so it's helpful since I frequent this site. There are also alot of folk's I may add that die from "legal" gun's as well ... for instance ... on the Texas/ Mexico border just in the last couple year's ... more people have died in shoot out's, than in both Iraq and Afghanistan war's combined, I also heard from a friend who was just visiting and spending the weekend at my home who live's in suburban Monterrey, Mexico (and none of this was reported on the news, but my info resources in Mexico I can assure you are impecable, it's been purposely kept from the media)that close by ... when some Mexicano drug war agent's were killed, the other agent's, supplied with gun's as well, that primarily came from the "US Gvmnt" (your taxes) went into the near Monterrey village, knocked on random door's to drill local for info, brought some 175 out of their home's and executed them at point blank range, because they didnt know nothing. Year's back when I was running contraband out of Mexico into Texas (Yes, I was arrested and tried as well on transporting, but not convicted ... in Navarro County, TX) 10's of thousand's of 9mm handgun's were coming into Texas ( I had a trunkload my own self )and being distributed mostly in the New York City and the surrounding Tri State Area, even though the gun's were from the arsenal of the former Soviet Union (they had the lil red Soviet symbol still on the grip's,Russian dealer's smuggled them through Asia from what I heard into Central and North America into Texas), the street price they turned for in Dallas was $100 each (illegally) .. in a store they would have went for 3X times that amount. The gun trade bottom line is much broader than any of the media realizes, and has player's in it, that many dont realize as well. Of course I have been a gun carrier and sportsman since childhood as well as archery, and throwing knive's, so I am not anti gun for the record, I'm still an NRA supporter as well for nearly 3 decade's now.
ReplyDeleteThanx Leslie
Very good post on a nagging problem that's been growing for years, thanks in considerable part to undying efforts of NRA types to fight any and all gun laws, no matter how clearly necessary those laws might be.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw what it was about, I tried to guess the top states. I got Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina, but thought sure your state and Florida would be included. I had no idea Indiana would be.
Prospects for tackling this aren't very good. I hate to say it, but Democrats are spooked by the NRA. It would probably take overwhelming public demand for immediate action — so overwhelming it would swamp NRA retribution efforts, to get them to act. Maybe some day.
BTW, L.P., what a splendid photo you've added up top. Instant wow factor.
ReplyDeleteI can't add anything to S.W. Anderson's comment. Just "thank you" for the information.
ReplyDeleteRC: I'm not interested in taking guns away from people who use them for sport, if that's what you call hunting, and target practice, skeet shooting, etc. IF, IF, IF people are using these weapons for honorable purposes, they should have no objections to a background check or any of the other laws listed on tracetheguns.org. Re the IRA, you certainly have a right to belong to whatever gang you want but I have no use for them myself.
ReplyDeleteSW: Maybe with pressure from the mayors, people - even Dems - will wake up and smell the coffee. Like you, I suspect that the NRA will be up in arms over this. No matter how sensible these laws may be in this day and time, the NRA is driven by Second Amendment rights which have no bearing on this matter at all. It's back to the wild frontier.
And thanks for noticing the photo. I wish I could take credit for having clicked it but the only click I made was with the mouse.
BJ: Thanks. It's a very important issue for me.
Of course this is no surprise. You have the largest amount of illegal activity when you have the laxest laws and minimum regulation.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why should we expect the states to behave any differently than the federal government. The US is both the biggest creator of weapons in the world and the biggest exporter of weapons in the world.
Want to make an impact on terrorism? Stop exporting our weapons. We are arming terrorists.
JC: the web site also has a link to a report on how our gun trade is impacting the Mexican drug wars.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the IRA or gang's are concerned Leslie, I am not sure where you gather that from(?) ... I have never belonged to a gang, nor was ever the member of a militant terror group such as the IRA (Irish Republic Army) .. I did live in London during some of their terror ... but I'm not even Irish at all for the record ... my dad was Jewish/ English and my mother was Italian/ Danish, and I have lived in Texas most of my life ... perhap's you misread something or such?
ReplyDeleteAlso I want to add, that I do NOT hunt since I was in my 20's as I have commented and posted before, after a deer kill experience that went foul and being the victim of a shooting myself, but yes as a child and young man I hunted a good amount, mostly in Upstate New York where I started, then in southern California and Nevada(Mojave Desert, etc), when I lived in Los Angeles (Hollywood) and Las Vegas and then in Texas Big Thicket region about 70 mile's northeast of Houston as well as southwest Texas, but archery as well played a large part in my early hunting. But now is only sport and self defense ... I go to local gun range's for handgun excercise's, including moving combat range, so it is target work and sport only. My handgun's of choice are a .357 mag I have and a back up 9mm.
ReplyDeleteRC: You shouldn't take things so personally. I just don't care for the NRA.
ReplyDeleteForgive me Leslie, but I wasnt taking anything personally either ... the word's you printed were word's about belonging to gang's ... and not the NRA, but the IRA ... so of course I was wondering where you obtained your information on me is all ... I'm sure you can understand, this wasnt personal or defensive, but just trying to set the record straight on myself is all, since this was wrote about me, as a response to me. Perhap's my writing skill's are not up to parr at time's as well.
ReplyDeleteRC: My mistake. I meant NRA - not IRA.
ReplyDelete