Posted on 09/18/2006 9:49:16 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Guns, bought easily and legally in Alabama and other states, are landing in the hands of criminals elsewhere, drawing the ire of leaders who have sued to stop the flow and pledged to fight what they say is a deadly export.
Alabama's role as a Top 10 supply state for "crime guns" - weapons purchased legally here but transferred illegally to others and sometimes used in crimes - is undisputed.
New York City police say that 5 percent of the guns recovered at crimes in the first half of 2005 were last sold at retail in Alabama.
"Alabama ranks, along with some other Southern states and some Midwestern states, in being a supply state because of its traditionally more lenient lifestyle and gun laws," said Jim Cavanaugh, who supervises ATF operations in portions of the South. "Guns are more readily available, more easily traded, plentiful. It's real."
Guns trafficked out of Alabama have turned up during all kinds of investigations in other locations - robberies, assaults, sex crimes, drug crimes and at least 10 homicides - in the past several years, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Special Agent Eric Kehn said Alabama guns have shown up from coast to coast: from Landover, Md., to Los Angeles; from Chicago to cities throughout Florida.
New York City has sued in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia - and pledged to sue wherever needed - alleging a handful of gun dealers have created a public nuisance and are negligent in selling weapons that eventually land in the hands of criminals.
Outlined in the suit is the purchase of 60 weapons in Ohio and Alabama, including some guns later sold in the New York City's Mott Haven public housing community.
The New York City actions and scrutiny of crime guns have set off a congressional fight about the release of information used to trace the weapons, data compiled by the ATF. While the bureau continues to provide trace information in criminal cases, it has been blocked by special amendment in Congress from making the information public.
ATF concentrates its investigations on firearms traffickers who divert guns from lawful commerce into the hands of criminals. Nationally, ATF investigations resulted in the convictions of 1,448 firearms traffickers in 2005. Alabama had 28 cases and 29 convictions that year, mostly from the greater Birmingham area, Kehn said.
Two 2005 Alabama cases accounted for hundreds of firearms.
ATF said a Hazel Green man and a man and wife from Huntsville were sentenced for dealing firearms without a license, obliterating serial numbers and conspiracy. The cases - involving the illegal sale of several hundred weapons - included guns recovered in New York, New Jersey, Florida and elsewhere.
Also in 2005, ATF and 20 other law enforcement agencies cooperated in Operation Flea Collar, an effort to stop illegal arms sales at flea markets and gun shows in Collinsville, Dutton and Birmingham. Eleven people were indicted and 556 weapons seized. The investigators recovered guns previously purchased from the defendants in Texas, Illinois, New York, Michigan, California, Georgia and North Carolina, according to the ATF.
Joe Vince Sr., former chief of gun analysis at ATF and now a partner in a firm called Crime Gun Solutions, said 86 percent of all firearms dealers never have a crime gun traced back to their business. The New York City suit, citing ATF research, says only about 1 percent of gun dealers are responsible for 57 percent of illegally possessed guns nationwide.
Easy smuggling
ATF's Cavanaugh said traffickers choose Alabama because they can get guns easier here than in other states.
"Cities in the North create stringent laws so a black market is created," Cavanaugh said. "Criminal firearms traffic doesn't have to cross a national border. So the smuggling across state lines becomes easy for a criminal to do. He's not going to run into border checkpoints and be questioned. Once he acquires the guns, he has an unfettered route."
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg not only had his city file suit but also has formed a coalition that has drawn more than 80 mayors to share information about guns and to fight for stricter controls and reporting.
"This is not a question of ideologies or a referendum on the Second Amendment," Bloomberg said when the group was formed. "This is about public safety and making sure that illegal guns never make their way into the hands of criminals and onto our streets."
Yep
Liberal politicians have to have something to blame the crime on
Can't possibly be that they create criminals with their liberal policies and then further exacerbate the situation with their liberal law enforcement and sentencing
And we're off...
The new tactic of the rat inspired gun grabbers is to label every state which supports the right to bear arms as a contributer to their own criminal populations. We all know where this is going.
If the rats gain control of Congress, expect the full court press on gun control. Conservatives who piss away this opportunity to drive a stake into the heart of the beast will have only themselves to blame.
"Outlined in the suit is the purchase of 60 weapons in Ohio and Alabama, including some guns later sold in the New York City's Mott Haven public housing community."
Why not open a gun store at Mott Haven, NYC. Sounds like it would do a booming business.
This the Cavanaugh of Waco fame?
Congratulations morons! You've just learned your first lesson in Economics 101: Supply and Demand!
Now FOAD!
I guess no responsiblity is to be placed on the criminals themselves - those who burglarize homes and vehicles and then sell the guns into the black market. NO, it is somehow the LEGAL gun buyers and sellers at fault here.
The author seems to want to forget that EVERY state in the US must follow the Federal gun sales guidelines or have more restrictive laws in place.
Here in Arkansas, one of the primary targets of home break-ins is guns. Crooks even bypass other easy to sell items and go looking for firearms. And they are not looking for guns to take on their next rabbit hunt. Criminals from NY and other areas of super-restrictive gun laws come down and fence thousands of firearms every year.
But he- it's ok - take it out on the legal gun buyers and sellers who are often victims in this case as well.
It stands for "f*ck off and die".
"New York City police say that 5 percent of the guns recovered at crimes in the first half of 2005 were last sold at retail in Alabama."
As many as that!
"ATF concentrates its investigations on firearms traffickers who divert guns from lawful commerce into the hands of criminals. Nationally, ATF investigations resulted in the convictions of 1,448 firearms traffickers in 2005. Alabama had 28 cases and 29 convictions that year..."
Excuse me for being underwhelmed. If the author wants to flak for Bloomberg for President, he should form a committee.
I seriously doubt that very many Alabamans would care if traffic to and from NYC, of any kind, was prohibited. It appears that the inability to control urban barbarians is the greatest threat to freedom we face.
"Now FOAD!"
Lol, hahhahah! That's a keeper!
Except this isn't exactly new... NYC did this to Virginia in the '80's, blamed their problem on guns being purchased in the Old Dominion. They've just dusted it off, and are trying it again...
the infowarrior
Wah wah wah wah wah wah
I did not know that. How'd it work out for them?
It worked well enough for them that former Gov Wilder got a one-handgun-a month law...
the infowarrior
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