|
Kansas: Crime-gun exporter
By MATT STEARNS The Kansas
City Star
WASHINGTON –– Kansas is a leading exporter of
guns used in crimes, and a prime culprit is a loophole
in the law, a gun-control group charged Monday.
More than 1,100 guns used in crimes in other states
and recovered by authorities were originally bought in
Kansas, according to 2001 federal statistics analyzed by
Americans for Gun Safety.
That made Kansas the No. 2 exporter per capita in the
country of guns used in crimes, behind only Mississippi.
A leading destination of those guns: Missouri. In
2001, 849 guns originating in Kansas were recovered in
Missouri crimes, the organization's report said.
Only three guns originating in Missouri were
recovered in connection with Kansas crimes that year,
according to the report, which used statistics from the
federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and
Explosives.
Gun-control advocates point to the so-called “gun
show loophole” as a main reason. Kansas is one of 33
states that allow people to buy guns at gun shows from
sellers who are not licensed as gun dealers.
That means buyers are exempt from federally mandated
background checks, which apply only to guns bought from
dealers.
“Gun shows are the last large-scale commercial
enterprise where you can get a gun without a background
check, and criminals have figured it out,” said Jim
Kessler, policy and research director for Americans for
Gun Safety, which supports legislation that would close
the loophole nationally.
Seventeen states have closed the loophole. Missouri
requires all buyers of handguns at gun shows to undergo
background checks. Buyers of long guns from nondealers
are exempt.
Bipartisan legislation that would close the gun show
loophole nationally is pending in the Senate. The
measure could be taken up as soon as this week as an
amendment to legislation that would grant gun
manufacturers immunity from civil lawsuits stemming from
gun crimes.
Gun-rights advocates say dealers sell the vast
majority of guns sold at gun shows, and therefore most
buyers are subject to background checks. There were more
than 2,100 gun shows in the United States in 2003.
“I go to virtually every gun show in the Kansas
City area, and very few guns are private
transactions,” said Kevin Jamison, president of the
Western Missouri Shooters Alliance.
Only a minuscule number of guns sold at gun shows
surface in crimes, Jamison said.
Indeed, the report said that out of hundreds of
thousands of annual gun-show sales, 36,828 guns
recovered in 2001 were used in crimes in a state other
than where they were bought.
Kyle Smith, a spokesman for the Kansas Bureau of
Investigation, said he would welcome a mechanism that
kept felons from buying guns. Smith, however, said he
would be hesitant to draw any conclusions from the data.
“I've seen nothing to show gun shows are the
issue,” he said. “It's more dealers who move large
numbers of firearms at discount prices to out-of-state
buyers. We've heard reports from ATF that guns sold by
those dealers show up in crimes across the country.”
Americans for Gun Safety acknowledges a lack of
direct physical evidence linking those guns specifically
to gun shows.
The group points out, however, that states with the
open loophole are overwhelmingly a source for guns used
in crimes in other states, according to federal
statistics.
In Missouri in 2001, 57 percent of crime guns
recovered came from other states. In Kansas, 26 percent
of crime guns recovered in 2001 came from other states.
Of the 36,828 recovered crime guns that crossed state
lines in 2001, 74 percent originated in a loophole-open
state, the report said.
The KBI's Smith noted that was not surprising,
because two-thirds of the states are open-loophole
states.
The 15 states that are the biggest sources, per
capita, for guns used in crimes in other states all have
the loophole open, according to the report.
By contrast, the report said that some of the most
populous states did not export large numbers of guns
used in crimes in other states. California, New York and
New Jersey were all, per capita, among the lowest export
states. All had closed the loophole.
In a 2000 report, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms said that gun shows were the second-leading
source of firearms recovered in illegal gun-trafficking
operations.
That report also said “prohibited persons, such as
convicted felons and juveniles, do personally buy
firearms at gun shows, and gun shows are sources of
firearms that are trafficked to such prohibited
persons.”
“It's important to close the loophole,” Kessler
said. “The statistical evidence is so overwhelming
that you'd have to be blind not to see this is a
problem.”
The loophole opened up in 1993, when the Brady
gun-control law went into effect. The law required
federally licensed gun dealers to perform background
checks on buyers and enforced a waiting period on gun
purchases. With an instant-check system now in use,
there is no waiting period.
Private transactions were exempted from the Brady
law. At gun shows, many private citizens sell guns from
what are supposed to be private collections.
Some of those private citizens are mighty active,
Kessler said.
“I've been to about a dozen gun shows,” he said.
“I've seen the signs that say, ‘No ID, no paperwork
required.' I saw the same people, allegedly not dealers,
selling over and over again. Sometimes the gun is still
in the box.”
If that is the case, those people can be charged
under current federal law, said Kansas Sen. Phil
Journey, a Haysville Republican and a leading gun-rights
proponent.
“If they're in it for the business, and not just
selling their collections, I don't see any problem
enforcing current law,” Journey said. “That's the
problem. We're not enforcing current law.”
Americans for Gun Safety, founded in 2000, bills
itself as a moderate — and moderating — force in the
debate over gun rights. It has endorsed the federal
legislation and worked closely on gun-safety issues with
Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and one of the
bill's chief sponsors.
“Senator McCain is very strongly in support of the
Second Amendment,” said Marshall Whitman, McCain's
spokesman. “He also believes in responsible gun-safety
measures. This is a middle-ground approach that avoids
the extremes of either side.”
Chris Cox, the National Rifle Association's chief
lobbyist in Washington, said that his group supported
making all gun transfers at gun shows subject to
background checks but that the McCain legislation would
be too burdensome to gun shows.
For example, while the instant-check system generally
would be used, the McCain legislation would provide up
to three days to perform a background check. Many gun
shows are two-day affairs, so many sales could be lost.
“This legislation isn't about background checks at
gun shows,” Cox said. “It's about shutting them
down.”
The gun manufacturer immunity bill already passed the
House without the loophole amendment, so even if the
amendment passes, it would have to survive conference
with the House.
President Bush supports background checks at gun
shows, but he has not taken a position on the McCain
legislation, said Jim Morrill, a White House spokesman.
To reach Matt Stearns,
Washington correspondent, call 1-(202) 383-6009
or send e-mail to mstearns@krwashington.com.
First glance
• Kansas is
one of 33 states that exempt buyers at gun shows from
federally required background checks.
• More than
800 guns sold in Kansas were used in crimes committed
in Missouri in 2001. Only three guns sold in Missouri,
which requires more review of buyer backgrounds, were
recovered in Kansas crimes.
|
