Not TOTALLY biased.
Link
Boston billboard pins crimes on Vermont guns
Not far from Fenway Park in Boston and visible from some of the busiest highways on the East Coast is a 252-foot-long, 20-foot-high billboard with a message: "Stop Traffic: Background Checks Prevent Crime," alongside enormous silhouettes of handguns. The accused? In equally large letters: Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, city police leaders and a group called Stop Handgun Violence unveiled the billboard's message to raise public support to change federal law so background checks would be required for private handgun sales. Federal law requires background checks only on purchases from licensed firearms dealers -- primarily gun stores.
Although many states have more rigorous laws, Vermont and 31 other states do not. And the coalition's contention is that Massachusetts is paying a price for the neighboring states that don't require checks.
The billboard's slogan is catchy but hard to prove, at least in Vermont's case. Further, if it once was a problem, it appears to be less so.
Although Massachusetts law enforcement officials recognize that access to handguns is easier here, they don't think guns from Vermont used in crimes are a big problem. It's difficult to know with certainty, because federal law prevents public release of information on the origin of guns used in crimes.
Boston Police Superintendent Paul Joyce said Vermont is not a significant source of guns used in crimes in his city, but that Florida, Maine and New Hampshire are.
"We only had one illegal gun end up in Boston from Vermont in 2005," Joyce said, adding that "secondary markets" for old guns, such as flea markets and "kitchen table" sales, make it more difficult to trace guns to where they were bought by criminals, even if the place of the first sale can be identified.
The I-91 corridor
The western part of Massachusetts is more connected to Vermont because of Interstate 91 and because the states share a border.
Capt. William Noonan of the Springfield, Mass., Police Department said although his department still confiscates guns bought in Vermont, guns from the Green Mountain State are not as much of a problem as they were a few years ago.
"Still, the perception is that it's easier to get access to guns in Vermont," he said. "People will go up from here with heroin and crack and trade them for guns."
For the past five years there has been a crackdown on drug trafficking between the two states, Noonan said. For that reason, fewer Vermont guns have been confiscated. Tom Anderson, assistant U.S. district attorney of Vermont, obtained statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for The Burlington Free Press that indicate a decline from 2004 to 2005 in the number of guns stolen from dealers and owners in Vermont, the number of guns recovered from gang members out of state that have originated from Vermont, and the number of guns being trafficked illegally by Vermont residents as documented in criminal prosecutions.
Anderson said there had been an "uptick in resources applied to investigating and catching firearms traffickers," mainly the hiring of more ATF agents to work in the state.
When guns are confiscated in trafficking cases, Anderson said, they might have come from legal sources or from burglaries. "It's difficult to tell," he said. "They could even have come from out of state and ended up in Vermont."
John Rosenthal, co-founder of Stop Handgun Violence, is a Massachusetts resident and owner of the Boston billboard. He estimates that 250,000 people see his billboard daily while commuting to and from Boston from the city's western suburbs. Rosenthal's group paid for the billboard with money raised from businesses and individuals.
Rosenthal, who attended Vermont's largest gun show in Barre in February, said he was shocked to see guns being sold by private owners "in the aisles and from pickup trucks in the parking lot." In Massachusetts, all handgun sales require a background check, and buyers must have a permit issued by local police.
He conceded it is difficult to prove how many guns from Vermont are used in crimes, but added that "it is a totally imperfect science." A gun can be passed among many owners over a long period of time before being used in a crime.
Cindy Hill, an attorney in Middlebury given an award by the National Rifle Association for her legal advocacy of the Second Amendment, said she doubts private gun sales in Vermont are fueling crime in Massachusetts.
"More and more gun owners are taking their guns to stores to sell on consignment, and the stores require background checks," she said. "People call me all the time asking advice on whether to sell guns to stores or on their own."
Stuck in traffic
The Boston group and others want to change a national law that prevents the public from knowing where crime guns originate.
ATF tracks where crime guns come from, but a national appropriations bill passed by Congress has been amended for the past four years to prohibit the bureau from disclosing that data to the media or public, including public officials. ATF does share information with other law enforcement departments who need it for criminal investigations of gun traffickers.
The amendments, dubbed the Tiahrt amendments because they were introduced by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., also protect gun dealers from being sued for crimes committed with guns traced back to them. The amendments have been supported by the National Rifle Association.
Menino -- and other mayors across the country -- are calling for repeal of the law because it prevents law enforcement from "shutting down rogue gun dealers and identifying patterns of behavior" that tell officials about the flow of guns across state lines.
Darren Gil, the resident agent in charge of the Vermont field office of ATF, said most guns picked up in crimes in New England can be traced to firearms traffickers, who either burglarized a gun owner or dealership or "somehow purchased them from a licensed dealer."
Gil hesitates to place blame on specific states' laws for the trafficking problem. "Nationwide," he said, "if you want illegal firearms, you can get them."
Link
Boston billboard pins crimes on Vermont guns
Not far from Fenway Park in Boston and visible from some of the busiest highways on the East Coast is a 252-foot-long, 20-foot-high billboard with a message: "Stop Traffic: Background Checks Prevent Crime," alongside enormous silhouettes of handguns. The accused? In equally large letters: Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, city police leaders and a group called Stop Handgun Violence unveiled the billboard's message to raise public support to change federal law so background checks would be required for private handgun sales. Federal law requires background checks only on purchases from licensed firearms dealers -- primarily gun stores.
Although many states have more rigorous laws, Vermont and 31 other states do not. And the coalition's contention is that Massachusetts is paying a price for the neighboring states that don't require checks.
The billboard's slogan is catchy but hard to prove, at least in Vermont's case. Further, if it once was a problem, it appears to be less so.
Although Massachusetts law enforcement officials recognize that access to handguns is easier here, they don't think guns from Vermont used in crimes are a big problem. It's difficult to know with certainty, because federal law prevents public release of information on the origin of guns used in crimes.
Boston Police Superintendent Paul Joyce said Vermont is not a significant source of guns used in crimes in his city, but that Florida, Maine and New Hampshire are.
"We only had one illegal gun end up in Boston from Vermont in 2005," Joyce said, adding that "secondary markets" for old guns, such as flea markets and "kitchen table" sales, make it more difficult to trace guns to where they were bought by criminals, even if the place of the first sale can be identified.
The I-91 corridor
The western part of Massachusetts is more connected to Vermont because of Interstate 91 and because the states share a border.
Capt. William Noonan of the Springfield, Mass., Police Department said although his department still confiscates guns bought in Vermont, guns from the Green Mountain State are not as much of a problem as they were a few years ago.
"Still, the perception is that it's easier to get access to guns in Vermont," he said. "People will go up from here with heroin and crack and trade them for guns."
For the past five years there has been a crackdown on drug trafficking between the two states, Noonan said. For that reason, fewer Vermont guns have been confiscated. Tom Anderson, assistant U.S. district attorney of Vermont, obtained statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for The Burlington Free Press that indicate a decline from 2004 to 2005 in the number of guns stolen from dealers and owners in Vermont, the number of guns recovered from gang members out of state that have originated from Vermont, and the number of guns being trafficked illegally by Vermont residents as documented in criminal prosecutions.
Anderson said there had been an "uptick in resources applied to investigating and catching firearms traffickers," mainly the hiring of more ATF agents to work in the state.
When guns are confiscated in trafficking cases, Anderson said, they might have come from legal sources or from burglaries. "It's difficult to tell," he said. "They could even have come from out of state and ended up in Vermont."
John Rosenthal, co-founder of Stop Handgun Violence, is a Massachusetts resident and owner of the Boston billboard. He estimates that 250,000 people see his billboard daily while commuting to and from Boston from the city's western suburbs. Rosenthal's group paid for the billboard with money raised from businesses and individuals.
Rosenthal, who attended Vermont's largest gun show in Barre in February, said he was shocked to see guns being sold by private owners "in the aisles and from pickup trucks in the parking lot." In Massachusetts, all handgun sales require a background check, and buyers must have a permit issued by local police.
He conceded it is difficult to prove how many guns from Vermont are used in crimes, but added that "it is a totally imperfect science." A gun can be passed among many owners over a long period of time before being used in a crime.
Cindy Hill, an attorney in Middlebury given an award by the National Rifle Association for her legal advocacy of the Second Amendment, said she doubts private gun sales in Vermont are fueling crime in Massachusetts.
"More and more gun owners are taking their guns to stores to sell on consignment, and the stores require background checks," she said. "People call me all the time asking advice on whether to sell guns to stores or on their own."
Stuck in traffic
The Boston group and others want to change a national law that prevents the public from knowing where crime guns originate.
ATF tracks where crime guns come from, but a national appropriations bill passed by Congress has been amended for the past four years to prohibit the bureau from disclosing that data to the media or public, including public officials. ATF does share information with other law enforcement departments who need it for criminal investigations of gun traffickers.
The amendments, dubbed the Tiahrt amendments because they were introduced by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., also protect gun dealers from being sued for crimes committed with guns traced back to them. The amendments have been supported by the National Rifle Association.
Menino -- and other mayors across the country -- are calling for repeal of the law because it prevents law enforcement from "shutting down rogue gun dealers and identifying patterns of behavior" that tell officials about the flow of guns across state lines.
Darren Gil, the resident agent in charge of the Vermont field office of ATF, said most guns picked up in crimes in New England can be traced to firearms traffickers, who either burglarized a gun owner or dealership or "somehow purchased them from a licensed dealer."
Gil hesitates to place blame on specific states' laws for the trafficking problem. "Nationwide," he said, "if you want illegal firearms, you can get them."