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Most gun crimes are committed by people
who cannot legally own a gun.
Mayors, Police
Chiefs - please tell us: WHERE
DID HE GET THE GUN?
Justice Suggs was 13 years old when he was shot and
killed in New Haven. Police arrested 16-year-old Thaddeus
Rout, and say they have the gun Rout used - BUT they
say they do not "expect any further arrests in the case."
WHY NOT???
Thaddeus Rout could NOT purchase this gun
legally. Where did Thaddeus Rout get the gun? CAGV
sent a letter to Assistant Chief Herman Badger on September
7, 2006 asking this question. As of September 20, 2006,
we have not had a response.
The Illegal Gun Market: Something's
Happening Here
A topic that does not get enough attention
in the debate about gun safety is the issue of diversion.
Diversion occurs when guns are moved from legal purchasers
to illegal owners.
Unlike drug sales, all gun sales start
with a legal purchase. CT state law requires that purchasers
of handguns must receive an authorization from the Department
of Public Safety indicating that they are not prohibited
from ownership because of felony convictions, protective/restraining
orders, or any other disqualifiers. But it is currently
not very difficult for prohibited purchasers to get
guns. Guns are diverted into the illegal market by traffickers
or "straw purchasers" -- people who can own guns,
and purchase them to sell to people who cannot.
Diversion is a very serious problem. Most
violent gun crimes are committed by people who cannot
legally own guns, usually because they are felons or
because they are underage. Nationally, about 500,000
guns are confiscated every year by law enforcement.
About 80% of these guns were in the possession of people
who could not legally have a gun. When a criminal is
charged with illegal possession of a gun, the question
that needs to be answered is "who did the criminal get
the gun from." The answer to this question is seldom
provided.
The significant market for illegal guns
continues to be served with relative impunity. The cost
to society is enormous and the cost in human tragedy
greater. Law enforcement aggressively prosecutes one
crime, criminal possession, but does relatively little
to investigate how that criminal got his/her gun.
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a program
initiated by the Bush Administration and supported by
the National Rifle Association, the large and powerful
gun rights organization. The focus of the program has
been to prosecute felons found to be in possession of
guns. With an annual budget of $220 million, the program
was having significant success in prosecuting these
felons. The major weakness of the program was that it
was not doing enough to prosecute the traffickers who
were selling the guns to these felons.
CAGV began to take a focussed interest
in the diversion problem about two years ago. According
to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives (ATF&E), 38% of traced crime guns were
originally purchased from 2% of the nation's gun dealers.
Typically there is no action taken against these dealers.
It seems reasonable that gun manufacturers and ATF&E
are aware of which dealers are part of the 2% who have
repeatedly sold guns that end up in the hands of prohibited
owners. So why aren't these dealers investigated more
closely and stopped?
Over the last two years, CAGV has been
meeting with U.S and State attorneys to urge them to
be more proactive in prosecuting traffickers. Although
there has been some reluctance because of the prosecutorial
difficulties, some of the attorneys have begun to plan
strategies for the prosecution of traffickers.
However, in December of 2004, the budget
for Project Safe Neighborhoods, which would have funded
the efforts of prosecutors in getting guns out of the
hands of criminals, and was a program initiated by the
Bush Administration and supported by the NRA, was unceremoniously
defunded. Neither the Administration nor the NRA made
the slightest attempt to have the funding restored for
this program whose success had been so aggressively
touted right up until the time of defunding. This was
very suspicious since defunding has always been part
of the NRA's political strategy as a defense against
challenges to their agenda.
CAGV has been troubled by these events.
We are determined to continue our efforts to address
the diversion problem. In fact, thanks to a grant recently
received from the Greater Bridgeport Area Foundation,
we will be able to step up those efforts. Our plan was
to start with an analysis of the most current ATF data
on gun trafficking. We have not had access to this data
recently because, although it used to be freely available
to the public, Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice
Department took away this accessibility and made it
available to law enforcement only. Not to be deterred,
we contracted with Crime Gun Solutions, a firm started
by two former ATF agents who were able to obtain the
data concerning ATF&E crime gun traces through a Freedom
of Information action. Unfortunately, when we received
the report, we were surprised and frustrated to find
that all of the pertinent data had been redacted from
the report.
While we are continuing our attempts to
get this data, we are returning our attention to work
with prosecutors to get to the bottom of the trafficking
problem. We are hoping to convince them that chasing
these traffickers and straw purchasers is a worthy and
productive goal. We also want to understand better how
the defunding of Project Safe Neighborhoods has affected
or will affect their efforts and plans.
We are committed to breaking this cycle
of looking away from the trafficking problem, confiscating
guns from users, and opening the market to more trafficking.
A great disservice is being done to the safety of our
communities, our families, and our children. We hope
that you will support us in this effort by getting involved
as a volunteer or by making a contribution to CAGV.
With your help we can significantly reduce the danger
of guns getting into the hands of criminals.
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