Guns from states with weak firearms laws are being used at an ever-increasing rate in city crimes, Mayor Bloomberg said Wednesday, as he vowed to continue his push for tougher laws across the country.
“Keep your guns out of our city,” Hizzoner said. “Couldn’t be simpler.”
The most recent data available show that 90% of all guns used in city crimes in 2011 came from other states, Bloomberg revealed at a news conference in City Hall.
That spike compares to 86% in 2010 and 85% in 2009.
“We’re getting killed and we’re getting killed with guns that come from elsewhere and we have a vested interest and a legitimate interest in trying to protect our citizens.
“And we’ll do that,” Bloomberg vowed.
Bloomberg released a list of the top 10 out-of-state sources for firearms used in city crimes.
Virginia placed first and was followed by North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Alabama, Texas and West Virginia.
All those states have some sort of “private sale loophole” that doesn’t require background checks, Bloomberg said. And those guns are maiming and killing New Yorkers, he said.
“Sadly, last Saturday, a 17-year-old boy in Brooklyn was fatally shot,” he said.
“Police are still investigating this murder and haven’t yet recovered the weapon used in it, but there is a strong likelihood that the gun came from out-of-state and that underscores a harsh reality.”
Bloomberg also continued to use the bully pulpit to push back against criticism of his lobbying for gun control in other states.
“To those who say, ‘Stay out of our state,'” Bloomberg said. “Our answer is, ‘We’d love to. Just as soon as you stop letting guns seep into the black market and land in the hands of criminals and be used to murder our citizens.'”
Bloomberg announced that he planned to aid two Colorado state senators who face an NRA-backed recall vote for supporting gun control in the wake of mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Sandy Hook, Conn.
“Yes, I’m going to give some money, because I think they’ve done what’s right for the people of Colorado,” he said.
John Feinblatt, Bloomberg’s chief policy adviser, said the city is “to some degree at the mercy of laws beyond our borders.”
“Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina all provide more crime guns to New York State than you find from New York State alone,” Feinblatt said.
“It’s an amazing statistic.”
The failure to stop gun trafficking “ends up killing people in Brooklyn north and the Bronx, bluntly, minority neighborhoods,” Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of law and police studies at John Jay College, said later.
“We have a tremendous base of knowledge in New York City about where the guns come from but there’s literally an obstacle course to making reforms because Congress is paralyzed on the issue of guns,” he said.
“If it was any other thing that was killing our citizens, we would get to the root of it.”
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