cuchulainn
Member
from the Indy Star
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/1/044151-4621-009.html
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/1/044151-4621-009.html
Federal gun cases skyrocket
Most prosecutions in state's Southern District involve felons accused of possessing a firearm.
By Shannon Tan
[email protected]
May 19, 2003
Gun crime cases referred for prosecution by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have nearly tripled in the past year in Indiana's Southern District, a Syracuse University study has found.
The number of gun prosecutions also doubled -- from 17 to 38 -- in the district, which covers 60 counties, including Marion, in the lower two-thirds of the state.
But the study found that instead of targeting gun dealers, most of the federal gun prosecutions were directed at individual gun users. Nationally, two out of three prosecutions involved a felon in possession of a gun or ammunition.
"They're using the fact they're carrying a gun as a way to get them into the federal system for a relatively long sentence," said Alfred Blumstein, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who has studied Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal gun enforcement program announced by President Bush in 2001.
"On the other hand, they're paying virtually no attention to the gun markets."
Nearly all of the Southern District prosecutions involved convicted felons accused of having guns or ammunition. The remaining defendants were those who allegedly bought guns to resell to criminals.
The jump in cases is making Indiana safer, according to ATF Special Agent Scott McCart, because the convicted felons might have used the guns in more crimes.
Firearms were used in seven of 10 Marion County homicides in the past three years, according to an Indianapolis Star analysis.
In 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns were involved in Marion County homicides at a rate higher than those of other Midwestern cities, such as Cincinnati.
According to the Department of Justice, federal gun crime prosecutions have increased by 32 percent since Project Safe Neighborhoods started.
Last year, more than 10,600 defendants nationally were charged with gun violations.
The number of referrals and gun prosecutions, however, dropped slightly in the state's Northern District, according to the Syracuse group, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. In 2001, there were 127 prosecutions based on ATF referrals. That number dropped to 103 a year later.
Copyright 2003 IndyStar.com.
I used to beg USAs to take BGs with guns cases in the Northern District. 99% of them came back to me.