W hen Brooklyn District Attorney K enneth Thompson put out a 558-count indictment against six firearms traffickers who conspired to sell illegal guns here, all 155 of the weapons recovered by the NYPD came from one place: Georgia.
If you think you’ve heard this story before, you have. Last September, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. indicted an individual who had illegally trafficked a huge stockpile of guns — via the post office — here from Georgia.
As good as the NYPD is at tracking illegal weapons, it’s impossible to catch everyone. The stark reality is that 90% of all crime-related guns recovered in New York City come from out of state. The illegal firearms that flow north on the so-called Iron Pipeline from states like Georgia with lax gun laws routinely end up in the hands of criminals here — all too often, with deadly results.
Anybody asking why a gun trafficker in Brooklyn buys his product 940 miles away in LaGrange, Ga., should look no further than that state’s gun laws — or, more accurately, the lack thereof.
Last month, Georgia passed what is being called a “guns everywhere” bill that makes it even harder to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous people — going so far as to repeal the system that had let the state’s licensing department pull licenses from rogue dealers who had been found guilty of criminal or fraudulent activity.
And that was just the latest in Georgia gun laws. The state has no criminal penalties for straw purchasers who buy firearms for those banned from doing so themselves. It doesn’t require background checks for people purchasing guns from unlicensed dealers, including at gun shows and online. It doesn’t even require gun owners to file a police report if their guns are lost or stolen.
Laws like these have made the state a favorite point of purchase for gun traffickers, with guns sold in Georgia ending up used in crimes elsewhere at more than twice the national average.
Georgians also suffer as a result of their laws. The state gun murder rate is 27% higher than the national average. Women there are shot to death by intimate partners 52% more often than the national average, and 97% more often than in states that require a background check for handgun sales.
Something needs to be done to curb gun violence, and background check legislation is the top priority. We won’t continue to wait for legislators in Washington — we are passing legislation in states across the country that will make it harder for dangerous people to get their hands on guns.
Currently, 16 states require background checks — and these laws make a difference. In Colorado alone, the new background check law has stopped 160 people banned from buying a gun from getting their hands on one. Other states need to follow suit.
Georgia is not the only feeder state of illegal guns. Guns from Indiana and Mississippi travel into Chicago, while Virginia and the Carolinas also feed guns here.
Just last August, the NYPD announced the largest gun-trafficking takedown in its history when more than 250 guns from North and South Carolina were seized after arriving in New York City. Like Georgia, these states are not doing their part to make it more difficult for criminals to get their hands on guns.
New York is doing its part. Strong laws requiring background checks for all sales, along with proactive policing and tough sentencing guidelines for illegal gun possession, have made it incredibly difficult for criminals to buy guns here. And as a result, shootings and murders-by-gun have reached record lows.
But even more New Yorkers could be spared from injury or death with stronger laws in other jurisdictions. When it comes to relations between states, strong background check laws make good neighbors.
Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, was previously the criminal justice coordinator for New York City.
