June 25, 2000
Study Says Gun Traffickers Arm Criminals
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON, June 24 -- More than half the investigations of firearms trafficking conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms recovered at least one gun that had been used in other crimes, a study by the bureau has found.
"This report shows that trafficking investigations lead to armed violent criminals," Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said last week at a new conference. The Department of the Treasury oversees the bureau.
The report documented 1,530 investigations by the bureau's agents between July 1996 and December 1998.
More than half the investigations involved firearms known to have been used in other crimes, Mr. Summers said, including homicides, robberies and assaults. And a quarter of the traffickers were convicted felons, he said.
President Clinton,in a statement, said: "gun trafficking puts thousands of guns onto our nation's streets and contributes significantly to our nation's gun violence problems. Each gun put into the hand of a criminal represents the possibility of one more life lost, one more family destroyed."
Bureau and Justice Department officials, working with state and local law-enforcement officials, have turned up more than 84,000 firearms, leading to more than 1,700 prosecutions on gun-trafficking charges, the authorities said.
More than 14 percent of the trafficking investigations involved juvenile cases; about 17 percent were associated with homicide cases and robbery cases, respectively; and about 25 percent were associated with assaults, the study found.
Felons play a significant role in the sale and distribution of firearms. The study indicated that when law enforcement officials followed a gun used in a crime to its supplier, the authorities often found another violent criminal. For example, about a quarter of the bureau's investigations involved felons buying, selling or possessing firearms.
"Thus, investigations that 'follow the crime gun' to its illegal source are not only an effective strategy to disrupt and reduce firearms trafficking in a community, they also are an effective means to apprehend felons, armed career criminals and narcotics traffickers who possess and misuse firearms," investigators wrote in the report.
In March 1996, for example, a gun was recovered from a juvenile in Washington who had been charged with illegal possession of a firearm. The gun was traced to a gun dealer in Missouri and then to a gun trafficker in Nashville, who had sold 200 to 300 guns on the streets of the nation's capital.
To date, 138 firearms linked to the dealer in Missouri have been recovered after being used in crimes in the Washington area, including homicide and burglary.
James E. Johnson, the undersecretary for enforcement at the Treasury Department, called this effort "finding the criminal behind the criminal." Mr. Johnson said that the Clinton administration would "continue to push for strong legislation" from Congress, particularly dealing with the so-called gun show loophole.
Corrupt gun dealers were associated with the most guns diverted to traffickers, the study found, but gun shows were also a major channel. The gun shows accounted for the second highest number of trafficked guns per investigation, 130, and for about 26,000 illegally diverted firearms. The investigations involved licensed and unlicensed sellers at gun shows.
"No set of measures will ever eliminate access by all criminals to firearms," Mr. Summers said.
However, he added, "every case against a gun trafficker contributes to the reduction of gun violence."
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company