Where did the gun come from?

Asking, and answering, "Where did the gun come from?" can prevent shootings

We ask Where did the gun come from? after every shooting to identify the people who supply guns to criminals. If we can cut off the flow of crime guns at the source, we can save lives.

Welcome to our discussion on how we can stop violence caused with illegal guns. What’s an illegal gun? It’s a gun in the hands of a criminal or youth who is prohibited by law from having one. Did you know most gun crimes are committed by people under the age of 25 who acquired their guns illegally? 5 out of 6 guns recovered in crime were obtained through illegal means. (Braga & Pierce, 2005) If we cut off the supply of guns to criminals and youth, we can save lives.

Let me say right off the bat—we’re NOT trying to take guns away from lawful citizens. In fact, we’d like to clone gun owners who store and maintain guns safely. We’re not targeting YOUR gun, we’re targeting CRIME guns. We want to break down the system of illegal trafficking that provides guns to criminals. We hope you’ll weigh in with your thoughts about how we can keep guns out of the hands of kids and criminals. So many lives depend on us doing this better.

Nancy

Ohio gun shows caught arming criminals

In this issue:
1. CFS responds: Gun shows caught arming criminals
2. Boston Globe/AP article on NYC gun show stings and findings

1. CFS responds: Ohio gun shows caught arming criminals
Read Citizens for Safety’s press release here:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Lori O’Neill 216-470-3086
10.7.09

Report: Ohio Gun Shows Arm Criminals Illegally

Cleveland, Ohio, October 7—Ohio gun shows are an easy mark for criminals looking to buy guns illegally, reveals a new report and video released today by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The report, “Gun Show Undercover, Report on Illegal Sales at Gun Shows” (www.gunshowundercover.org) chronicles an undercover investigation of illegal gun sales at gun shows in Ohio, Tennessee and Nevada conducted from May through July of this year.
“We have known for years that Ohio is one of the top source states for illegally trafficked crime guns,” said Lori O’Neill, Executive Director of Citizens for Safety Ohio. “This report highlights the importance of passing state and federal laws to require background checks on all buyers at guns shows, and for providing the ATF and local and state police with the resources to enforce existing laws. This report is a wake up call for police and elected officials to better enforce existing laws and close the loopholes that allow criminals to illegally purchase guns so easily at gun shows throughout our states.”
Undercover investigators examined seven gun shows in the three states – four in Ohio, including gun shows at Dayton Hara Arena, Dayton; Eastwood Expo Center, Niles; Sharonville Convention Center, Sharonville; and Westland Mall, Columbus. Investigators conducted “integrity tests” of 47 sellers at the shows – both federally licensed dealers and private sellers – by simulating illegal gun purchases. The investigators found that:

• 63% of private sellers (19 of 30) approached by investigators sold to a purchaser who said he “probably couldn’t pass a background check.”
• 94% of federally licensed gun dealers (16 of 17) approached by investigators sold to apparent straw purchasers.
• In total, 74% of sellers (35 of 47) approached by investigators appeared to have made an illegal sale.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), 30% of guns involved in federal illegal gun trafficking investigations are connected in some way to gun shows. The New York City report clearly illustrates how easy it is for criminals to buy guns illegally at the shows. Ohio has more than 150 gun shows each year, making them popular destinations for those who can’t own guns legally, and for those who traffick guns to criminals and juveniles.
Citizens for Safety is a coalition of citizens, faith and community leaders, public officials, and law enforcement working to keep guns away from criminals and juveniles while respecting the rights of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms. For more information, please contact Lori O’Neill at 216-470-3086 or visit www.citizensforsafety.org.

2. Boston Globe/AP article on NYC gun show stings and findings
Undercover stings lead to allegations of illegal sales at gun shows
Legal loophole abused, NYC says
By Sara Kugler, Associated Press | October 8, 2009
NEW YORK - Investigators hired by New York City conducted stings at gun shows in states that have not closed the “gun show loophole’’ and found some vendors openly selling weapons to buyers who said they couldn’t pass background checks.
The stings, described in a city report released yesterday, were conducted at seven gun shows in Tennessee, Ohio, and Nevada. Those states are among the many that permit private unlicensed dealers, known as “occasional sellers,’’ to sell weapons at gun shows without conducting background checks.
Advocates of gun control say the loophole makes it easier for criminals to acquire guns and prevents law enforcement from being able to trace those weapons if they are used in crimes.
Nine states, including New York, have passed laws to close the loophole, requiring background checks on at least all handgun purchases at gun shows. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has long campaigned for Congress to close it - and for states to do it on their own if the federal government does not.
Even in states that haven’t closed the loophole, federal law bars “occasional sellers’’ from selling guns to people they have reason to believe would fail background checks.
This is where the Bloomberg operation says 19 out of 30 sellers broke the law during the investigation, in which undercover buyers wore tiny cameras concealed in baseball hats and purses and audio recorders hidden in wristwatches.
In each purchase, the investigator showed interest in buying a gun, agreed on a price, and indicated that he probably could not pass a background check. Most sellers allowed the purchases anyway, according to the report.
Two assault rifles and 20 semiautomatic handguns were bought this way, the report said.
The 11 dealers who refused sales showed they knew the law.
“Once you say that, I’m kind of obligated not to,’’ said one seller, according to the report. “I think that’s what the rules are.’’
The city has no legal authority over the dealers and is using its findings to make a point. A copy of the report is being sent to every member of Congress and the findings will be shared the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/10/08/undercover_stings_lead_to_allegations_of_illegal_sales_at_gun_shows?mode=PF
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Citizens for Safety is a community coalition working to support strategies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, youth and terrorists without abridging the freedoms of law-abiding American citizens.

Traffick Jam Unites Community and Police

In this issue:
1. Another successful Traffick Jam workshop unites New Bedford residents and city and state officials
2. Citizens making a difference: PA group shuts down notorious gun dealer
3. Springfield newspaper stands up for gun rights AND Mayors Against Illegal Guns
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1. New Bedford Traffick Jam unites officials and community
"I have a better understanding of where our kids are getting the guns, and I plan to go to bat for both the DA's and Governor's bills." New Bedford resident interviewed after Thurday’s Traffick Jam

CFS held our 8th successful Traffick Jam Community Workshop to combat illegal gun trafficking in New Bedford Sept. 24. New Bedford has been plagued with a dramatic uptick in gun violence the past several months. There were 3 shootings in September alone, and the city is fighting back.

An all-star line up of Traffick Jam presenters included prominent community leaders, New Bedford's Mayor, Police Chief and District Attorney, and Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety.

Chief Teachman brought in dozens of crime guns recently recovered from New Bedford's streets, serving as a vivid reminder of the risks of an unchecked system of gun trafficking. DA Sam Sutter reported that 95% of the gun cases he prosecutes involve illegally obtained firearms. Presenters hammered home 2 basic themes: 1) illegal guns are the issue, not guns in the hands of lawful gun owners, and 2) we can do something about this problem. The DA, Mayor Lang, and Secretary Burke called for a change in Mass. law that would allow DAs to hold Dangerousness Hearings for people charged with illegal gun possession. Secretary Burke also made a strong case for a one-gun-a-month law that would help law enforcement identify and prosecute gun traffickers.

Read more about New Bedford's Traffick Jam and additional community events to stem gun violence caused with illegal guns:

Traffick Jam' looks at sources of illegal guns
By Jennifer Lade / New Bedford Standard-Times | Friday, September 25, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
NEW BEDFORD - When a crime involving a firearm is committed, people focus their attention on the shooter. Rarely is thought given to how the criminal got the illegal gun in the first place. A workshop Thursday evening at Our Lady of the Assumption Church tried to change that, reports the Standard-Times.

The "Traffick Jam," as the event was called, was organized by Citizens for Safety, an organization that strives to "keep guns out of the hands of criminals and youth without abridging the freedoms of law-abiding Americans." Presenters - including Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter, the Rev. David Lima, Mayor Scott W. Lang, Police Chief Ron Teachman and Massachusetts Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke - sought to shift the conversation on gun violence to ask the question, "Where did the gun come from?" Nancy Robinson, executive director of Citizens for Safety in Massachusetts, spoke of the "Iron Pipeline" that is supplying criminals and youths with firearms. She lined up five audience members who represented a gun manufacturer, gun dealer, gunrunner, gang leader and shooter to show that illegal guns often begin at a legal source. "Do we ever focus on this end of the pipeline?" she asked. "No. We need to crack down on the sources."
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1199999&format=text

Read the article in its entirety here:
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090925/NEWS/909250330

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090922/NEWS/909229987/-1/NEWSMAP
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090919/NEWS/909190326
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090928/NEWS/909280335
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090914/NEWS/909140310/-1/NEWS10
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Your support will help Citizens for Safety conduct Traffick Jams across Massachusetts and stop the flow of guns to criminals.

Please send tax-deductible donations to:
Citizens for Safety
31 Heath Street Suite 12
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

Thank you!
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2. Citizens making a difference: PA activists shut down notorious gun dealer

Colosimo's gun shop closing is imminent
By Vernon Clark
Inquirer Staff Writer
Colosimo's gun shop, a Philadelphia store targeted by antiviolence protesters, will close by tomorrow under a plea agreement reached in federal court.
James Colosimo, the store's owner, entered a guilty plea yesterday before U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage on behalf of Colosimo's Inc. on charges of making false statements and failing to properly maintain firearms-transaction records. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reed said the plea was made on behalf of the corporation, not of Colosimo individually.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tomika Stevens said the store, at 933 Spring Garden St., sold 10 guns to three people who employees should have known were "straw" purchasers. A straw buyer is someone who purchases a gun with the intention of transferring that weapon to a person prohibited by law from buying guns, such as a convicted felon. Reed said investigators were able to determine that "people working on behalf of Colosimo's were selling guns to individuals who certainly should not have received them because they were, under law, prohibited persons."
In addition to the closing, Colosimo's Inc. faces a fine of up to $200,000. Reed said prosecutors asked the court to issue a fine of at least $10,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 6.
"In Philadelphia, just in the last week, there were over 50 shootings. There have been 220 people killed in this city this year, and those guns are often obtained through straw purchases," Reed said. He said none of the guns in the Colosimo's case were linked to any shootings. But, Reed added, "we know historically that guns that are straw-purchased are used in the most heinous crimes."
The store had been the focus of weekly antiviolence protests by the interfaith group Heeding God's Call, which urged Colosimo's to sign a "code of ethics." One of the leaders of the group, the Rev. Isaac J. Miller, rector of the Church of the Advocate at 18th and Diamond Streets, hailed the store closing and the guilty plea. "I think it is absolutely great news," Miller said.
Contact staff writer Vernon Clark at 215-854-5717 or vclark@phillynews.com.
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3. Springfield newspaper stands up for gun rights AND Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Editorial: Memo to the NRA: Lighten up a little
By The Republican Editorials
September 28, 2009, 5:44AM

Sometimes the National Rifle Association needs to know when it's time to lighten up.

It pains us to say that, because the NRA has fought hard to keep the state and federal governments from denying responsible, law-abiding Americans from possessing and enjoying guns.

But the organization jerked the trigger recently when it targeted Easthampton Mayor Michael A. Tautznik and other Western Massachusetts mayors because they had the temerity to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national organization that works to deny irresponsible and criminal citizens from getting their hands on guns.

It would take the logical skills of Aristotle to explain the finer points of why these groups disagree. Let's just say that the mayors' group believes America needs stronger curbs on gun trading, while the NRA believes the group seeks to erode our Second Amendment rights.

The NRA has been sending letters to its members nationwide denouncing Mayors Against Illegal Guns and urging them to pressure their mayors to quit the organization.

Caught in the middle of the whole affair is Tautznik, a gun owner and NRA member, who is locked in a tight re-election race. He withdrew from Mayors Against Illegal Guns after he received eight to 10 letters about his membership.

"This really isn't a local issue," he said last week. "I thought it would be quicker for the community to just end it." Tautznik is wrong about that. It is a local issue, and Western Massachusetts doesn't need the NRA to tell us what to think. We know guns. Our region is home to two of the world's leading gun manufacturers - Smith & Wesson and Savage Arms. Our friends and neighbors make these guns.

But our region is also home to an ugly gang violence problem. Nearly all the murders and shootings in the region are committed with illegal guns. We know that nearly every illegal gun was once a legal gun, and mayors should fight illegal gun trading.

The Republican has and will continue to support the rights of gun owners, but sometimes we wish the NRA would focus more on promoting marksmanship and gun safety instead of badgering small town mayors. We've been shooting a little high and right lately, and we could use the NRA's help. But when it comes to politics, we can think for ourselves.
http://www.masslive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/09memo_to_the_nra_lighten_up_a_l.html
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Citizens for Safety is a community coalition working to support strategies to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, youth and terrorists without abridging the freedoms of law-abiding American citizens.

Nancy Robinson
Phone: (617) 233-5363
Fax: (617) 467-4604
www.wheredidtheguncomefrom.com
info@citizensforsafety.org

Here we come....

A Battle of Goliaths: Michael Bloomberg and His Anti-Gun Group Take on the NRA
By Manuel Roig-Franzia Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

They've got 4 million followers. He's got 16 billion simoleons. This could get verrrrry interesting. This being the stare-down between the National Rifle Association and Michael Bloomberg. Behemoth vs. behemoth.

Since the Reagan revolution, few lobbies have been mightier than the NRA. The Second Amendment defenders rarely lose on Capitol Hill, but lose they did just a few days ago, falling short in a sit-up-and-take-notice squeaker of a Senate vote on an amendment that would have let gun owners carry concealed weapons across most state lines.

Score one for Bloomie and 450 of his closest mayor buddies (they call themselves Mayors Against Illegal Guns) . . . and their D.C. lobbyists and their consultants and their ad people. Score one against the NRA and the amendment's sponsor, that rising GOP star Sen. John Thune of South Dakota.

The Thune amendment inspired a gymnastic lobbying effort, juiced by Bloomberg's wealth -- he's injected $2.9 million of his own money into the mayors group since 2007, a spokesman confirms. Zooming in on how Bloomberg's group, far from an established Beltway force, out-lobbied the once-invincible NRA affords a glimpse of Capitol gamesmanship in the new Democratic-controlled Washington. There's a war room, of course, famous names dialing famous names and some in-your-face tactics, too. And, naturally, there's enough bad blood left over to ensure many fights to come.

"The problem is that the NRA isn't willing to look at reasonable things," Bloomberg says in an interview. As for the Thune amendment that he just finished blocking, Bloomberg sums it up like this: "Another obstacle in the way of sanity."

Read more here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR2009080403132_pf.html

Traffick Jam workshops a hit with Governor and 100 youth

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Secretary of Public Safety Kevin Burke, and the United Teen Equality Center hosted a Traffick Jam Community Workshop for over 100 youth and community leaders in Lowell on Tuesday, July 21. The Governor and Secretary won over the audience with straight talk about how legislation the administration filed will make it harder for traffickers to stockpile guns and circumvent the law. Many of the teens present vowed to work to pass the Governor's legislation.

Check out the Governor's Twitter post: "Just inspired by some powerful young people at UTEC in Lowell discussing gun violence. They support our bill to track illegal firearms." -D

Patrick pushes gun-control bill in Lowell visit
By Jennifer Myers, jmyers@lowellsun.com Updated: 07/22/2009 06:35:46 AM EDT

Gov. Deval Patrick, speaking about gun violence to a crowd of 150 teens and officials at the Traffick Jam Community Workshop at the United Teen Equality Center yesterday, said society's complacency is unacceptable. He used the platform to boost the "Act to Reduce Firearm Violence," a bill proposed by his administration to strengthen the state's already tough gun laws. "You must make your voices heard, you must tell your stories," Patrick told the teens, urging them to call or write their state representatives. "The status quo is not acceptable."

Read more about the Governor's Traffick Jam in the Lowell Sun: http://www.lowellsun.com/

One citizen CAN make a difference in the fight against gun trafficking

Read how one intelligent, determined and resourceful Boston resident attended Citizens for Safety's Traffick Jam workshop, swung into action, and made it harder for traffickers to arm themselves with illegal guns.

Herald gives antigun activists a win
Will stop distributing Maine catalog
By Vivian Nereim, Globe Correspondent | July 24, 2009

In Maine, Uncle Henry's Swap or Sell it Guide is best known as a folksy compendium of thrift: a cheap way to buy puppies and snowmobiles directly from their owners. But in Boston's inner-city neighborhoods, the classified ad catalog's firearm section - a black-and-white list of AK-47s, Rugers, and Glocks - serves as another link in the illegal gun trafficking chain, according to community activists. Next week, the pastel-colored booklets will begin to disappear from shelves in liquor stores and Stop & Shops in Roxbury and Dorchester. Under pressure from Citizens for Safety and other organizations, the Boston Herald decided yesterday to stop distributing the publication in the Boston area.

www.boston.com