http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050502/NEWS01/505020350/1002
May 2, 2005
Project sets sights on illegal guns
By Lora Hines
[email protected]
Local law enforcement officials predict a new program to get illegal guns off Jackson streets could begin by the end of the year.
U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton wants to start a gun interdiction unit through the Jackson Police Department. Officers would use vans equipped with gun-firing tanks to test weapons taken at the scene of vehicle stops and crime scenes.
Laboratory technicians would analyze cartridge casings and projectiles to determine whether those weapons had been reported stolen and used in crimes. The test results would be entered into a database linked to a national gun database.
Lampton said he started thinking about the program long before two Jackson police officers recently were shot by suspects using stolen weapons.
On March 17, Officer Thomas Catchings died following a shootout with carjacker Omar Hampton, 18. Hampton also was killed.
Jesse James Powell, 49, of Jackson is accused of selling Hampton the gun he used to kill Catchings.
Last Monday, convicted felon Marvin Stamps used a gun stolen from a Forest Hills Road home to shoot at Officer Jerry Shoulders during a two-hour standoff. Stamps, 30, shot himself in the head as he hid in a shed.
Police don't know whether Stamps stole the gun or got it after the burglary.
"These two shootings really upped the urgency of (the program)," Lampton said.
Project Safe Neighborhoods, a committee designed to target people using illegal firearms, has about $360,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to pay for the program, Lampton said. The group, which includes law enforcement officials and residents, could decide this month to approve the idea.
Committee President Delbert Hosemann said members will favor the plan.
"One of our main goals is to get people to leave their handguns behind," he said. "Those individuals would leave their guns at home in fear they would be obtained in a legal search of their automobile."
If fewer people carry guns, fewer violent crimes will happen, Hosemann said.
Committee members have gone to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman to ask inmates how they got weapons. Many said they bought them on the streets, Lampton said.
He envisions interdiction officers developing sources throughout the city to determine where people buy illegal guns. He also is hopeful pawn shop owners and gun show salesmen would allow the unit to test weapons and enter the information into the database.
"(The unit) has to have a starting place," Lampton said. "If you don't build a database, it's useless."
He thinks criminals who steal guns or buy stolen guns will be less likely to use them because they won't know whether those guns previously have been tested and are in the database. Felons caught with guns face a maximum three-year state prison sentence. In federal court, they could face as much as 15 years if they are career criminals, Lampton said.
State law says an individual must be at least 18 to possess a handgun but must be at least 21 to buy a handgun. It requires a permit if a gun is carried anywhere other than a person's home, business or automobile.
Mississippians who are at least 21 must apply for a four-year concealed weapon permit.
Jackson Police Chief Robert Moore said his department is working to get equipment ordered and officers and lab analysts trained for the unit.
"It could make a major difference," he said.
===
May 2, 2005
Project sets sights on illegal guns
By Lora Hines
[email protected]
Local law enforcement officials predict a new program to get illegal guns off Jackson streets could begin by the end of the year.
U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton wants to start a gun interdiction unit through the Jackson Police Department. Officers would use vans equipped with gun-firing tanks to test weapons taken at the scene of vehicle stops and crime scenes.
Laboratory technicians would analyze cartridge casings and projectiles to determine whether those weapons had been reported stolen and used in crimes. The test results would be entered into a database linked to a national gun database.
Lampton said he started thinking about the program long before two Jackson police officers recently were shot by suspects using stolen weapons.
On March 17, Officer Thomas Catchings died following a shootout with carjacker Omar Hampton, 18. Hampton also was killed.
Jesse James Powell, 49, of Jackson is accused of selling Hampton the gun he used to kill Catchings.
Last Monday, convicted felon Marvin Stamps used a gun stolen from a Forest Hills Road home to shoot at Officer Jerry Shoulders during a two-hour standoff. Stamps, 30, shot himself in the head as he hid in a shed.
Police don't know whether Stamps stole the gun or got it after the burglary.
"These two shootings really upped the urgency of (the program)," Lampton said.
Project Safe Neighborhoods, a committee designed to target people using illegal firearms, has about $360,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to pay for the program, Lampton said. The group, which includes law enforcement officials and residents, could decide this month to approve the idea.
Committee President Delbert Hosemann said members will favor the plan.
"One of our main goals is to get people to leave their handguns behind," he said. "Those individuals would leave their guns at home in fear they would be obtained in a legal search of their automobile."
If fewer people carry guns, fewer violent crimes will happen, Hosemann said.
Committee members have gone to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman to ask inmates how they got weapons. Many said they bought them on the streets, Lampton said.
He envisions interdiction officers developing sources throughout the city to determine where people buy illegal guns. He also is hopeful pawn shop owners and gun show salesmen would allow the unit to test weapons and enter the information into the database.
"(The unit) has to have a starting place," Lampton said. "If you don't build a database, it's useless."
He thinks criminals who steal guns or buy stolen guns will be less likely to use them because they won't know whether those guns previously have been tested and are in the database. Felons caught with guns face a maximum three-year state prison sentence. In federal court, they could face as much as 15 years if they are career criminals, Lampton said.
State law says an individual must be at least 18 to possess a handgun but must be at least 21 to buy a handgun. It requires a permit if a gun is carried anywhere other than a person's home, business or automobile.
Mississippians who are at least 21 must apply for a four-year concealed weapon permit.
Jackson Police Chief Robert Moore said his department is working to get equipment ordered and officers and lab analysts trained for the unit.
"It could make a major difference," he said.
===
Forty states, give or take, and nearly that many years now, with various forms of concealed carry, have pretty well shown precisely the opposite. :banghead: 
