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Main Page New Jersey Gives Big Boost to Gun Tracking
(Click here to view the original thread on the MassCops Message Board)

Posted by: kwflatbed

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (KRT)
via NewsEdge Corporation

Aug. 16--EWING, N.J. -- New Jersey will become the first state in the country to step up its tracing of illegal firearms by sharing a federal gun database, Gov. Corzine announced yesterday.
Joined by state and federal officials at a news conference at state police headquarters, Corzine said the state would now have real-time electronic access to a database maintained by the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that lists a gun's first buyer, date of sale, and the retailer from which it was purchased.
This would give New Jersey a powerful mechanism to analyze illegal gun violence and trafficking patterns, officials said, and potentially allow authorities to quickly link crimes in several towns.
The tracing information is compiled from local police records of gun purchases, but in the past only ATF and the department that provided the information have been able to access it, state officials said.
The announcement came a week and a half after three college students in Newark were shot dead execution-style, though officials said the agreement had been in the works for six months.
Corzine said the partnership "will allow us to pursue, arrest and prosecute the purchasers and sellers of illegal guns that have plagued our streets and communities for far too long."
"This is not the only answer, but it is a fundamental building block" in curbing gun violence in the state, Corzine said. He said he would encourage other governors to make similar agreements.
Only 30 percent of local departments nationwide provide firearms information to the ATF database, called the e-Trace system. Attorney General Anne Milgram yesterday said she was directing all local law-enforcement departments in the state to fully comply by forwarding their tracing information, which will go into a database shared by all Jersey law enforcement.
"Criminals cross town lines, they cross county lines, they cross state lines -- and now with this agreement today, so will we," Milgram said.
In 2006, 4,743 people were arrested in New Jersey for possessing illegal firearms. Of the 3,100 weapons submitted for trace last year, only 26 percent were purchased in New Jersey, according to ATF data. The state's gun-control laws are among the most stringent in the country.
"Comprehensive firearms tracing and analysis saves lives -- that's the bottom line here today," said Mark Potter, special agent in charge of the ATF's Philadelphia division. Potter said guns can only be accurately traced if their serial numbers can be retrieved.
Bryan Miller, the executive director of the gun-control group Ceasefire New Jersey, said technology to uncover defaced serial numbers had vastly improved and that access to the federal database could be a powerful law-enforcement tool.
"It's a great expansion of the use of ATF capabilities to locate where illegal guns are coming from and who's doing the trafficking," said Miller, who attended yesterday's news conference. "It's the right direction to go in for not just the state but the nation -- this is New Jersey taking the lead."
Camden's top law enforcement official, Arturo Venegas Jr., said the database -- and having information from every local police department -- would be "fantastic because it enables us to move faster in determining whether we have illegal guns," regardless of where they come from.
A spokesman for the National Rifle Association, Andrew Arulanandam, said the group had no problem with the agreement as long as New Jersey did not violate federal laws that allow only law enforcement officers -- not the public -- to have access to tracing information.

Information From: AP Wire Services

Posted by: Wolfman

Quote:

Corzine said the state would now have real-time electronic access to a database maintained by the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that lists a gun's first buyer, date of sale, and the retailer from which it was purchased...
...Corzine said the partnership "will allow us to pursue, arrest and prosecute the purchasers and sellers of illegal guns that have plagued our streets and communities for far too long."
"This is not the only answer, but it is a fundamental building block" in curbing gun violence in the state, Corzine said. He said he would encourage other governors to make similar agreements.

Let me get this straight. Joe Citizen buys a gun, then sells it to Jane Citizen legally, who then trades it to her sister for a J frame and a speedloader, then her sister's house gets B&E'd by a guy who probably should be serveing a sentence for a previous crime. After 4 hours of prying at the lockbox, the B&E guy gets the gun out. He sells the gun to Thug A for $50 and a carton of generic cigarettes. Thug B buys the stolen gun from thug A, then trades it to thug C for a dime bag and 20 minutes with his baby mama, then thug C's stepcousin who is visitng from New York takes the gun along with a PS3, a box of rap CD's and some ripoff Nikes and stows them in the trunk of the shitbox car he stole, then the gun falls out through the rust hole in the trunk of the car and is picked up by a wino who trades it to a street punk for a half-bottle of Mad Dog, then the street punk tries to knock over a store and a stray round hits Mama Fatass in her ample posterior, does this mean Mama Fatass can now sue Joe Citizen and use the money to buy a green card?

Not sure how a list of gun owners and their purchases enters into this scenario in terms of crime prevention and solving. OTOH, a whole bunch of other, more nefarious uses comes to mind...

Posted by: cj3441

Yes, more legislation aimed at finding a way to hammer the legal gun owner while the rat who actually committed the crime with the gun gets a bump in his section 8 housing, and an increase in his state "paycheck" to buy that new grill he's had his eye on. There is a scary acceptance in our society for not holding people accountable for their actions, it's always blame someone else.

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