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States With Lax Gun Laws Have Higher Handgun Killing Rates

By David Badertscher, PLL

<p><font size="2"><strong>Source: </strong><em>Crime and Justice News, </em>December 5, 2008.</font></p> <p><font size="2">"States with lax gun laws had higher rates of handgun killings, fatal shootings of police officers, and sales of weapons that were used in crimes in other states, according to a study underwritten by a group of more than 300 U.S. mayors and reported by the Washington Post. The report found that 10 states supplied 57 percent of the guns that were recovered in crimes in other states in 2007. The report is based on an analysis of annual crime-gun data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The analysis tracks guns used in crimes back to retailers that first sold them." </font></p> <p><font size="2">"The study was compiled by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan coalition headed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. 'It's only a small group of states responsible for interstate gun trafficking,' said John Feinblatt, criminal justice coordinator for New York City. 'Not only do their guns victimize people from out of state, they have higher gun-violence rates themselves.' The 10 states with the highest crime-gun export rates had nearly 60 percent more gun homicides than the 10 states with the lowest rates. The high-export states had nearly three times as many fatal shootings of police officers."</font></p> <p><a href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0019QQiJtbNXMTn5g7lydEgXy25P_giVX7ad8BHrzfdoHRV81KSI2F74nK7v7y6CQl3uKeaKFu_Mvo-u3vvVJ-8DXeJEPsk8iQ3fvwSKnTJFjuZ2ZjbYR5yRsrDbhSr7n0vzztkrD_vzftZi7CddIEgY7oNRq9epx4dfX5mOOJT4fCnib8qeita8ciwkJ5D5tlytcMXlAh3TKmLYenDziDzQXhT8ZnroL19K8Rtv0sTERnWwyUQ2DoFNg==" shape="rect" color="#0000FF" target="_blank"><font size="2">Washington Post</font></a></p>

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on December 05, 2008 (boomark / email).