Guns and state borders

Trekking north

Most guns recovered from crime scenes come from ten lax states

ATLANTA

THE Iron Curtain kept Europeans in the communist east from travelling westward. The Iron Pipeline keeps guns travelling northward. That nickname has accrued to I-95, a highway running along America’s east coast from Miami all the way to Maine, which gun traffickers have long used to haul guns bought in southern states with relatively lax purchasing laws to sell in north-eastern states such as New York and New Jersey, which more strongly regulate gun sales. But gun-trafficking is far more complex and extensive than simply buying in Atlanta and selling in Newark, as detailed in a new report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns—a coalition of more than 500 mayors from across America dedicated, says the group’s mission statement, to “protecting the rights of Americans to own guns, while fighting to keep criminals from possessing guns illegally”.

Using gun-trace data provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the report shows that in 2009 ten states (Arizona, California, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia) supplied almost half the interstate-trafficked guns recovered at crime scenes.

The report also argues that the stricter a state’s gun laws are, the less likely that state is to export trafficked guns recovered at crime scenes. State reinforcement of federal penalties for providing false information when buying a gun, running background checks on buyers at gun shows, allowing local discretion to police when issuing concealed-carry permits, requiring purchase permits for handguns and allowing municipalities to set their own gun laws are all associated with lower gun-trafficking rates.

This is not the first report from this coalition on gun-trafficking—another released this month found that 90% of the guns recovered from crime scenes in Mexico and traced led back to American dealers. And it has attracted the sort of response one might expect: Andrew Arulanandam, director of public affairs for the National Rifle Association, called Mayors Against Illegal Guns “intent on enacting some form of gun control” and predicted that people would be “wary about believing so-called studies that come from groups that have an interest in the outcome.” And he ought to know.