State law should take aim at 'crime guns'

DURHAM -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino brought together 13 other big-city mayors in late April to decry the federal government's abdication of responsibility for controlling trafficking in illegal guns. They called on states and cities to crack down on sales to "prohibited buyers" -- criminals, gang members and other violent people who use guns in crime. Last month, Bloomberg took legal action against 15 gun stores in five states that supply guns used in New York City crimes.

The mayors are part of a national campaign against illegal guns involving, among others, States United to Prevent Gun Violence (of which the North Carolinians Against Gun Violence Education Fund is one of 29 members) and the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence. In North Carolina, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, Durham Mayor Bill Bell and Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy have signed onto the national campaign, which now includes 52 mayors.

It is estimated that five out of six "crime guns" are illegal. North Carolina is one of the nation's five worst states for trafficking illegal handguns to other states. On May 22, Charlotte's Hyatt Coin and Gun Shop was named by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as the fifth worst store in supplying guns used in crimes nationwide. North Carolina is part of an "iron pipeline" that sends illegal crime guns to the Northeast in exchange for drugs that come back to our communities.

The primary source of illegal guns is corrupt (or rogue) gun dealers. Although most gun dealers are honest, gun traces show that about 1 percent of dealers are involved with 57 percent of crime guns. Amazingly, of the 120 worst gun dealers in the country, those with an average of 500 crime guns/year traced to them, 96 are still in operation!

North Carolina has 3,000 dealers, some of which the federal firearms bureau has shut down in recent years. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, six dealers supplied 45 percent of crime guns. But overall, Congress has protected the gun industry by limiting the bureau's unannounced visits to gun stores to one per year, underfunding the agency, and forbidding the bureau to share its gun-tracing data with others.

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The three major ways traffickers obtain guns are straw buying, getting "lost" guns from gun stores and purchasing weapons at gun shows. A straw buyer can obtain guns legally by passing the Brady criminal background check administered by a federally licensed gun store employee. He then transfers the guns to someone prohibited from buying and is paid, in cash or drugs.

A terrible example of a straw purchase is the gun used in the 2004 murder of Wake County Deputy Mark Tucker. The Brady Center has filed a lawsuit on his widow's behalf against the Cary pawn shop which sold the rifle.

"Lost" gun store inventory refers to back-door sales or stolen guns due to dealer complicity or carelessness. The weapon used by the D.C.-area snipers who murdered 10 people was a "lost" assault-style rifle.

At gun shows, it is estimated that at least 25 percent of those selling guns at shows are private, unlicensed sellers. The "gun show loophole" allows such sellers to skip background checks and sell to prohibited persons (In North Carolina, handgun purchasers must obtain a sheriff's permit).

There are several laws which could drastically reduce the number of illegal crime guns here and nationwide. Stronger federal laws would help most of all but are impossible, sadly, in the current political climate. Here are some ways North Carolina might fill the gap:

• To reduce bulk sales, the state should pass a one-gun-a-month law, making it harder for traffickers to accumulate large numbers of guns. Such laws have reduced crime guns in several states, including Virginia.

• To identify corrupt gun dealers, state law should be changed to make it mandatory, rather than encouraged, to trace all guns used in crimes, as well as to report stolen guns.

• To close the gun show loophole, background checks should be required on all gun sales.

• To further reduce illegal sales, North Carolina should regulate gun dealers. Here, as in many states, dealers are not regulated by the state except that they must have federal firearm licenses. Regulation would require prohibiting suspicious sales of guns and ammunition, careful tracking of inventory and training employees in all aspects of deterring illegal gun trafficking.

The primary obligation of political leaders is to the public safety -- not to the gun lobby and the gun industry, including corrupt dealers, nor to gun traffickers. North Carolina could take the lead in holding gun dealers responsible for their actions and keeping guns out of the wrong hands. We can largely solve this problem and protect our families and communities from the devastation caused by illegal guns.

(Lisa Price is executive director of the North Carolinians Against Gun Violence Education Fund.)