Mayors Against Illegal Guns Twists The Truth About Firearms Trace Data

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Twists The Truth About Firearms Trace Data

National Shooting Sports Foundation
National Shooting Sports Foundation

NEWTOWN, Conn –-(Ammoland.com)- In a recent report by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) coalition, an anti-gun organization led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the group misuses firearms tracing data in order to push its own gun-control agenda.

Let’s set the record straight:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has repeatedly stated, “The appearance of [a licensed dealer] or a first unlicensed purchaser of record in association with a crime gun or in association with multiple crime guns in no way suggests that either the federal firearms licensed dealer (FFL) or the first purchaser has committed criminal acts. Rather, such information may provide a starting point for further and more detailed investigation.” (Crime Gun Trace Analysis Reports, ATF, 1998).

According to ATF, the average time to recovery in the U.S. is more than 10 years. In other words, from the time a firearm is first purchased at retail (following a background check) to the time it is recovered by law enforcement, more than a decade has elapsed. If one were to isolate the top 10 source states, the time to recovery stays a similarly high 9.9 years. These numbers, state ATF, are not indicative of firearms trafficking. Furthermore, every state, every one, is its own top source state for recovered firearms.

The MAIG report also alleges that states with strong regulations and oversight of firearm sales have less firearms trafficking than states that lack such measures.

Though countless examples to refute this claim exist, let’s focus on three: California, Virginia and South Carolina.

  • The Golden State, with some of the strictest gun laws in the country, is the source state for 73 percent of its own recovered firearms. This means that nearly three-quarters of the firearms recovered in California were originally bought in the state. Neighboring Arizona, where the state legislature respects the Second Amendment and trusts its law-abiding citizens to exercise their right to keep and bear arms, has a paltry seven percent of the guns recovered in California. What’s more, that seven percent makes the Grand Canyon State the second highest source of recovered firearms for California!
  • The Commonwealth of Virginia, though it restricts law-abiding citizens to only one-gun-a-month, is considered to be a top source state by the MAIG — a seeming disconnect with the organization’s claim that tough gun laws limit trafficking.
  • In South Carolina, one-gun-a-month was repealed (allowing for more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens) and, like the rest of the U.S., South Carolinians experienced a decrease in violent crime. For the purposes of the MAIG study, South Carolina, without one-gun-a-month, didn’t even crack the top 10 on the MAIG list of source states.

The MAIG coalition criticizes the laws of the so-called “exporter” states. Yet, as gun ownership in the United States has soared, crime rates have plummeted in both the states MAIG likes and the states it dislikes. Mayor Bloomberg and his coalition fail to recognize that the laws of the states he criticizes are made by the democratically elected state legislators and represent what the citizens of those states want them to be (so long as they respect the Second Amendment).

Though Mr. Bloomberg may wish he was the Mayor of America, he’s not. He’s just the mayor of the City of New York, and the Second Amendment applies in Manhattan as much as it does in Mississippi.

About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 5,500 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.

8 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Clint

This is for Jim… The Law cannot touch these, well, there is no word in the human language that I can think of that does an apt job of describing these people.I would go ahead and say CRIMINAL, but I hate to disrespect a criminal. The reason (and this has been shaped along time ago)? Laws and amendments have been made that protect those that hold a public office from civil liability. I know, it's a turd sandwich and hell would freeze over before there could be anything done to reverse it. America, Home of The Free? Kind of depends… Read more »

JIM POTTER

Mayor Bloomberg is busy tracking down untaxed cigarettes that have been sold on Indian reservations and are being sold in the city with no additional or state tax added. Over $11.00/pack for premiums if purchased lawfully. No time to get all the facts straight.

Paul

Deadcenter………You hit the NAIL squarely on it's head with a Hammer ! A thought which I have expressed time and time again without any answers ! It is time for us to act as our Grand ForeFathers have in the past to restore our Sovereignty. Our U.S. Constitution, as written, and proclaimed, is our supreme guide to safe-keeping our Freedom. We, as a people of this Republic, need to follow this scripture of Freedom and act as Spartans, not sheep ! It is way past the time to raise the tool of Freedom, and that tool being, the Rifle !… Read more »

Jim

I don't understand. Why can mayor Bloomberg and mayor Daley, for example, not be held accountable for denying U S citizens our constitutional rights. It they work so hard to deny our Second Amendment rights, why are they not charged with a crime? It they worked so hard to deny our First Amendment rights, would they not be held accountable? It is time to make an example of some of these anti-2A leaders and charge them and put them in jail where they belong. Why is this not happening?

Deadcenter

Could we PLEASE stop being gentle and forgiving with these bloodsucking tyrants and control freaks?!? They didn't just 'twist the truth'. They out and out LIED. When you only tell part of the truth or fabricate it out of whole cloth you LIE. Give the devil his due. I would prefer to just call them bold faced liers directly, but I'm sure that at SOMETIME they probably tell the truth, to someone……

E. Zach Lee-Wright

TRUE FACT: The state with the most gun control laws has a murder rate over four times greater than the state with the least gun control. Rational: The Brady Campaign Scorecard rates California at a 79 for gun control, the highest in the nation while they also rate Utah at zero which is the lowest grade. The FBI released their Crime Report Sept. 13, 2010 which shows the 2009 murder rate in California is 5.3 per 100,000 while the rate for Utah is 1.3. It is also worth noting that Utah's lowest in the nation score does not correlate with… Read more »

DDS -- NRA Life Memb

"Mayors Against Illegal Guns Twists The Truth About Firearms Trace Data". — My mom used to say that everyone is good at something. MAIG has found what they're good at.

"I don’t get why the media establishment continues to tarnish their collective reputation with this garbage “news”." — The "easiest" girl in you high school wasn't worried about her reputation. Neither, apparently, is the media establishment.

steve

And let's not forget that the alleged source states also represent approximately one half of the US population. I don't get why the media establishment continues to tarnish their collective reputation with this garbage "news".