It’s Official: Lax Gun Control Laws Lead to More Crime

A new report may put programs like New York's controversial stop and frisk under new scrutiny.

By Naima Ramos-Chapman Sep 30, 2010

[Matt Kelly writes at Change.org](http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/lax_gun_laws_and_the_link_to_crime) that when a violent crime is committed in the U.S., it’s likely that the weapon came from one of about a dozen states with weak gun control laws. That’s according to a [new report](http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/downloads/pdf/trace_the_guns_report.pdf) published this week by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which also includes an [interactive mapping feature](http://tracetheguns.org/#/) that lets users to trace guns by state and region. As Matt Kelly [writes:](http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/lax_gun_laws_and_the_link_to_crime) > States in the southeast stand out as particularly egregious perpetrators. For at least four years, Georgia has topped the list of the raw number of guns used in illegal out-of0state crime, supplying nearly 3,000 crime guns each year. But when the data is adjusted for population, Mississippi, Kentucky and West Virginia rise to the top of the list for crime guns recovered per 100,000 residents. In all, 102,000 guns recovered in crimes nationwide were bought in the same state and 43,000 were from out-of-state. Half of those 43,000 came from the top 10 supply states. But the battle over how to control guns isn’t just a matter of pointing the finger at certain states. For some mayors, it’s a delicate balance between taking strict stances on gun control and infringing on people’s civil liberties. Case in point? New York City’s highly controversial Stop-and-Frisk program, which is touted as a strong reason for the city’s steadily dropping homicide rate, but has come under increasingly harsh local scrutiny amid allegations of racial profiling. In Brownsville, Brooklyn, a predominately black neighborhood marked by rows and rows of public housing, there were [52,000 stops in an eight-block radius over just four years. Just 1 percent of the stops yielded arrests and cops found only 26 guns. ](https://colorlines.com/archives/2010/08/voices_from_brooklyn_racial_profilings_part_of_everyday_life_here.html) The fact that the NYPD didn’t even attend a New York-based [police chief meeting](https://colorlines.com/archives/2010/08/nypd_declines_hometown_meeting_on_racial_profiling.html) to deal with racial profiling in law enforcement practices shows a missed opprotunity to salvage the corroded trust between communities of color and the city’s police force. I won’t argue with the evidence; tougher gun legislation is needed on a national level to keep gun violence at bay, but there also have to also be less prejudicial ways to implement those measures. For the full report head to [MayorsAgainstIllegalGuns.org](http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/downloads/pdf/trace_the_guns_report.pdf)