.
3/28/13, "Chicago, Los Angeles, New York Prosecuted Fewest Federal Gun Crimes," US News, Elizabeth Flock
"The districts that contain Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City ranked last in terms of federal gun law enforcement in 2012, according to a new report from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks federal data.
Federal gun crimes include illegal possession of a firearm in a
school zone, illegal sale of a firearm to a juvenile, felon, or drug
addict, and illegal transport of a firearm across state lines. In
Chicago, the majority of gun charges last year were for firearms
violations.
The districts of Eastern New York, Central California, and Northern
Illinois ranked 88th, 89th and 90th, respectively, out of 90 districts,
in prosecutions of federal weapons crimes per capita last year, but it
wasn't always this way. All three districts fell lower on the list than
they had been in years past. In 2010, for example, Chicago was 78th in
federal weapons prosecutions.
These cities also have some of the nation's most restrictive gun
laws, as well as the most active mayors in championing gun control. New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Los Angeles
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are all members of the national Mayors
Against Illegal Guns campaign.
D.C., which also has tough gun laws, was in the lower half of the
list in 2012, coming in at 78th. In 2011, D.C. prosecuted a higher
number of gun crimes, coming in at number 49.
National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre first pointed to the report on Meet the Press Sunday,
when he demanded to know why the national press corps wasn't asking the
White House or U.S. attorneys general to explain lax federal
enforcement of gun laws....
Requests for comment from the U.S. Attorney's offices in New York and
California were not immediately returned. But the U.S. attorney's office
in the Northern District of Illinois maintains that federal weapons law
enforcement is among the top priorities of their office....
The TRAC report notes that many more gun arrests happen at the state
and local level than happen at the federal level, and that it's
difficult to assess how many prosecutions happen overall.
While the districts that ranked lowest last year for federal gun
crime prosecutions all contained major cities, the districts at the top
of the list for its enforcement were almost exclusively rural. The
districts of Southern Alaska, Kansas and Western Tennessee ranked first,
second and third in prosecmutions of federal weapons laws per capita
last year.
Susan Long, a statistician and co-director of TRAC, said the data
revealed a stronger federal enforcement presence in rural areas than
urban ones. "If taxpayers of [a certain area] don't pass strong gun
control measures ... the feds pick up the ball," she said. "But now
we've got sequestration cutting back on all these resources."
The U.S. court system has said
that sequestration will have a major impact on the federal judiciary,
including the furlough of some court employees, cuts to the federal
defenders' office and fewer probation officers for criminal offenders." via Michael Savage
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment