Wednesday, December 23, 2009

New York City Traces Guns Used in Crime

The Manhattan News at DNA Info reports on the tracing of two guns used in the Upper West Side shooting. Thanks to Microdot for pointing this story out the me a few days ago. It's now taken on new interest.

When three generations of a family were found slain last week in an apparent drug-related homicide, it appeared to be just another example of the violence associated with Manhattan's drug trade.

But investigators say two hand guns found during the investigation of the Amsterdam Avenue slayings highlights another major New York crime problem — the illegal flow of weapons into the city using so-called straw buyers.

The two guns — one found at the scene and the murder weapon discovered in a nearby trash can — have been traced back to out-of-state gun shops.

A .380 Beretta semi-automatic, which police believe was used to kill two of the three victims, was traced back to a legal purchase at a gun store in Miami, Fla., in May 1990.

The ATF's Crime Gun Center, in New York, traced a .380 Hi Point, which was found at the scene, to Smitty's Sports Shop in Blakeslee, PA.

Both the gun store and the man who purchased the Hi Point — identified as Adigun Nicholson, 46, — are well known to the ATF. The ATF had identified Nicholson as a straw buyer, someone who legally buys guns that end up in the hands of criminals.

In January 2007, a gun was recovered by officers in the 46th Precinct in the Bronx and was traced by the Crime Gun Center to Smitty's where Nicholson bought it in December 2006.

An ATF investigation of Nicholson revealed multiple purchases — usually two guns at a time — by Nicholson from Smitty's between March, 2006 and February, 2007, the ATF said.

During an interview with Nicholson, he admitted to the ATF that he bought the guns for David Gonzalez from the Bronx, according to the ATF.

In May 2007, an undercover ATF agent arrested Gonzalez after selling him four guns in a sting operation. Gonzalez eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 39 months in prison, a law enforcement official said.

Nicholson pleaded guilty in September 2008 to falsely stating on federal forms that he was the intended user of the guns and is serving 20 months in federal prison.

What's your opinion? Is New York City good at tracing guns used in crime? To me it seems very fast. And the information gathered seems very useful to the efforts at eliminating this criminal activity. What do you think?

7 comments:

  1. "What's your opinion? Is New York City good at tracing guns used in crime? To me it seems very fast. And the information gathered seems very useful to the efforts at eliminating this criminal activity. What do you think?"

    Impossible. Can't happen. Remember? Bloomberg, Helmke and VPC says that the Tiahart amendment won't let police trace guns. Oh wait, that was just another lie.

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  2. IMPOSSIBLE! You, Paul, Peter and Laci keep telling us that the evil Tiart Amendment prevents law enforcement from tracing guns used in crimes.

    Of course anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty knows that anti's have been blatantly lying about the Tiart Amendment.

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  3. Upon reading this article and Mikeb's comments, one thing jumped out as needing to be said.

    I click on comments, ready to type, and...

    AARGH! FatWhiteMan and Mike W both said it already!

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  4. I would still like to see Tiahart detractors attempt to defend their dishonest claims next to stories like this and the one last week about the super-full-auto-magic-kill-all Times Square Mac 10 that was traced in about 4 minutes.

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  5. I suspect a few of you guys are exaggerating when you accuse the gun control folks of haveing said, "the evil Tiart Amendment prevents law enforcement from tracing guns used in crimes."

    What I've seen a few times is the claim that Tiahrt interferes and makes it more difficult.

    Perhaps what we've been seeing lately in New York is Bloomberg's capacity to get the tracing job done in spite of the Tiahrt Amendment. Mayors of other cities might not be so well equipped to do this and would be more hurt in their efforts than Bloomberg.

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  6. MikeB,

    Bloomberg has blatantly lied about Tiahart publicly several times. His lies have been quoted in The Washington Post, New York Post as well as a host of other news sites. I believe Sebastion has it well documented.

    I believe that the Bradys and VPC stil have their lies plastered on their websites now.

    I'll try to do more research when I have time.

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  7. It's no exaggeration, you just can't admit that your buddies like Bloomberg are lying about Tiahart.

    ReplyDelete