Monday, August 27, 2007
Editorial: Virginia arms the region's crooks
When law enforcement finds guns, too often they originated in Virginia.
When an East Coast criminal commits a crime with a gun, the odds are good that if his weapon did not come from his home state, it came from Virginia. The commonwealth, a federal study finds, has become a top supplier of firearms to many nearby states. Yet Attorney General Bob McDonnell is so in tune with the NRA he does not see the problem.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives last week released data about gun traces it ran in 2006 at the bequest of local law enforcement. Half of the more than 10,000 guns police found interesting in Virginia, Maryland and Washington originated here.
Virginia was also a top source of guns recovered by authorities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. In New York, 530 of 6,085 successful traces led to Virginia.
Virginia guns even showed up as far away as Idaho.
Though some of the guns were not involved in crimes -- some were just found, for example -- the majority piqued police interest as part of criminal investigations.
Virginia has become a top weapon source for two simple reasons.
First, the state's gun laws are lax compared to other states'. Loopholes and a vocal and myopic gun lobby ensure even bad people have access to firearms. Once they have them, transporting them to another state, though usually illegal, is easy.
Second, state officials like the attorney general have little interest in strictly enforcing what regulations Virginia does have.
McDonnell's subservience to the gun lobby was no more evident than in his recent, well-publicized fight with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had been sending undercover agents to Virginia gun stores to document illegal sales. McDonnell showed little concern that the law was being broken and more that New York was doing his job.
Likewise, a spokesperson for the attorney general responded to last week's news that substantiated New York's complaints with a tepid statement that Virginia's law enforcement system is "very effective."
The ATF findings say otherwise. If it were effective, so many weapons would not wind up in the wrong hands after coming from Virginia.
