Jun 15, 2010

More Georgia guns again show up at out-of-state crime scenes than any other state

02:19 PM

For the second straight year, guns sold in Georgia were recovered at more crime scenes outside its borders in 2009 than any other state, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

The report , which found that 2,771 of out-of-state crime scene guns were first sold in Georgia, is based on "trace" data compiled by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Florida was second, followed by Virginia, Texas and Ohio.

"Weak gun laws are a gun trafficker's best friend," said Paul Helmke, president of the Washington-based Brady Center. "Elected leaders in these states need to close the loopholes in their gun laws that allow criminals easy access to deadly weapons, and we need to take steps at the national level as well."

Gun right advocates, however, say the information from ATF is misleading and is used only to support criticism of Georgia's relatively liberal gun laws, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

"If you have a state like Georgia, which is fairly gun-friendly in terms of the hurdles it takes to buy one, there are going to be a lot of transactions," John Monroe of GeorgiaCarry.org tells the newspaper "It's not possible to take that trace information and correlate it with guns recovered at crime scenes. They're (The Brady Center) trying to show Georgia is a bad place, and that's not true. It would be more meaningful to look at gun crimes per capita if they are trying to show something about Georgia in general."

Sales made at gun shows or between individuals are not included in the ATF numbers, The Journal-Constitution says. Nor do all law enforcement agencies initiate a trace for guns they recover.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... er-state/1