Pilot program?
Link:
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=5828599
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U.S. Attorney announces initiatives to rid territory's streets of illegal firearms
ST. CROIX - Police records show that 180 guns were reported stolen on St. Croix alone in the last decade, U.S. Attorney David Nissman said Thursday.
Those guns often end up being used in crime sprees. To curb the use of such firearms in criminal activities, federal and local officials are coming together to help get guns off the street through
Project Safe Neighborhoods initiatives.
Final details still are being worked out, but beginning next month law enforcement officials will conduct an outreach program for students, clergy and licensed firearm owners in an effort to rid the territory's streets of guns.
Licensed firearm owners will play a large role in the effort, Nissman indicated.
"We're going to ask those people to subject their weapon to voluntary fingerprinting," he said, adding that this
will require licensed gun owners to fire their weapons so that law enforcement officials can retain projectiles and spent shells to be matched up to evidence found at crime scenes.
Nissman said that in addition to being stolen, guns are brought into the Virgin Islands via planes, boats, containers and even the mail. At times, he said, officials have found guns sent through the mail with the serial number already obliterated, which is a federal crime.
While sending a gun through the mail requires only one shipment,
sending ammunition for it is a repeated process that federal officials could track to pinpoint illegal transactions. Monitoring ammunition sales will help, Nissman said.
Under the initiative being developed, ammunition sellers will be required to keep a log of the types of ammunition sold to licensed gun owners, he said.
Also, when a licensed gun owner goes into a store to purchase ammunition and an unlicensed owner is directing the transaction, this should be cause for alarm, he said.
"Red flags ought to go off and law enforcement need to be notified," he said.
By July 7, law enforcement officials hope to meet with clergy and set up an outreach program for students on controlling anger and combating violence, he said.
"We don't want to see repeats of what happened at Complex last week," Nissman said, referring to the shooting death of 19-year-old Jahmalie Henry. A 17-year-old student from Central High School is accused of killing Henry with a sawed-off shotgun.
All reports indicate that the fight that led up to the slaying on Educational Complex's campus in front of hundreds of students stemmed from another fight during the weekend at Randall "Doc" James Racetrack.
Nissman said that he has asked the U.S. Justice Department to help incorporate training on coping with conflicts and violence into V.I. schools' curricula through its Community Relations Service program.
Another idea being considered is the establishment of a youth court program in which students would act as lawyers, judges and jurors in cases of violence at their schools, he said.
"None of these things are silver bullets. None of these things will solve all our problems alone, but if we can save one life, it will be worth it," Nissman said.
He added that under the territory's outreach program, postal services will be asked to do more screening of packages, but not to the point that it would constitute an invasion of privacy.
"Nobody should think that everything coming into the Virgin Islands will be screened," he said.
"Gun violence is a community plague, and it's only going to be eradicated by community involvement," he said. "Nobody is going to come here from somewhere else and solve this problem for us. Only we can solve this problem."
For example, he said, people can no longer sit back and expect someone else to call the police when they see a crime in progress.
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Comment: Don't you just love the "voluntary" part...kind of like income taxes?