The stream of illegal guns from southern states being used in crimes in New York City has increased, despite efforts to stem the flow, officials said on Wednesday.
In 2011, 90% of the 2,433 traceable guns used in crimes came from out of state—a jump from 2010, when 86% of the 2,319 guns used in crimes originated outside of New York, according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives data cited by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg said it? Well, then... Notice the cute use of traceable in the 2011 numbers, while the 2010 numbers are of guns used in crimes. Let's also note that going from 86% to 90% is a fluctuation.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we're left to wonder why those guns don't stay home and cause crime.
When we look at the ATF site ourselves instead of listening to Bloomberg, we see a much different picture.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.atf.gov/sites/default/files/assets/statistics/tracedata-2012/2012-trace-data-new-york.pdf
Take a look at tile 7 for source states. Did that much change in 2012? That is 1/3 of crime guns originating in New York, a far cry from 90%. Also take a look at tile 8 which shows the average time to crime being 14 years. No, it is not surprising that guns end up coming from a mix of sources when they have 14 years to move around. And, please, please also read tile 2 (the disclaimer tile), which is always worth pointing out anytime we are talking about trace data.
The disclaimer is so important I’ll paste it here with my emphasis added:
Delete(1) Firearm traces are designed to assist law enforcement authorities in conducting investigations by tracking
the sale and possession of specific firearms.
Law enforcement agencies may request firearms traces for any
reason, and those reasons are not necessarily reported to the Federal Government.
Not all firearms used in
crime are traced and not all firearms traced are used in crime.
(2) Firearms selected for tracing are not chosen for purposes of determining which types, makes or models of
firearms are used for illicit purposes.
The firearms selected do not constitute a random sample and should not
be considered representative of the larger universe of all firearms used by criminals, or any subset of that
universe.
Firearms are normally traced to the first retail seller, and sources reported for firearms traced do not
necessarily represent the sources or methods by which firearms in general are acquired for use in crime.
Yeah, there it is in black and white. It's a big conspiracy to make false claims about gun trafficking.
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