Schumer: Expand offensive against illegal guns to Southeast states
Sen. Chuck Schumer called on the federal government Sunday to expand its recently announced offensive against illegal guns to include Southeast states that feed the illegal weapons trade in New York City and Long Island.
Schumer applauded the U.S. Justice Department’s announcement last week that it is creating strike forces to target gun trafficking and violent crime in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. But Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the Justice Department and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives needs to expand their efforts to states that are the source of many illegal weapons used in crimes in New York.
"Gun traffickers in Eastern Seaboard states like Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia are exporting hundreds of illegal guns to New York every year, and it has to stop — because those out-of-state guns are used on our streets in violent crimes," the Senate majority leader said. "With the right strategy, the right federal pressure on export states and my personal commitment to provide ATF with much needed funding, the feds can burst the iron pipeline plaguing New York in a lasting way, and that is what we want."
According to the ATF, at least 474 guns involved in crimes in 2019 in New York originated in Virginia, 420 originated in South Carolina, and 550 came from Georgia. Schumer said federal officials need to use that data as a guidepost as it works with U.S. attorney's offices and state and local law enforcement officials.
The senator called for sustained pressure on gun traffickers, as well as on states that do not do proper reporting and data collection or take other reasonable safety steps.
Farmingdale State College criminal justice Professor Brian Kelly said Schumer’s suggestion is helpful but much more needs to be done. He said the NYPD and other police departments should focus on intelligence-based policing and strategic analysis to reduce violent crime and take guns off the streets of high-crime communities.
Kelly, a former New Jersey police officer, said the feds should respond to increasing violent crime by creating task forces that focus on illegal gun trafficking, like the government’s response to terrorism after 9/11.
"We need to put aside the politics and say, ‘We don’t care who you are, we are coming after you,’ " Kelly said.
John Jay College criminal justice Professor Joseph Giacalone said local prosecutors and judges could focus on existing laws to reduce gun crimes. Defendants charged with possessing illegal guns, he said, should be denied bail.
"It is amazing that you can be arrested with a gun in New York and be bailed out a few hours later," Giacalone said.
Giacalone called on the NYPD and other departments to boost anti-crime efforts. The department last year ended its 600-member plainclothes anti-crime unit, which was involved in a disproportionate number of complaints and shootings.
"That has destroyed proactive policing," Giacalone said.
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