AP: California Peace Officers Have Bought 7,600 Assault Weapons

California law enforcers have bought more than 7,600 assault weapons that are outlawed for civilians in the decade since state lawmakers allowed the practice, reports the Associated Press. Federal authorities are investigating illegal gun sales by law enforcement. The information was obtained through a California Public Records Act request filed after federal authorities served search warrants in November as part of an investigation into allegations of illegal weapons sales by several Sacramento-area law enforcement officers..

The AP's findings and the federal probe have prompted one state lawmaker to revisit the law to ensure that the guns can be bought only for police purposes. "I think it's much more questionable whether we should allow peace officers to have access to weapons or firearms that a private citizen wouldn't have access to if the use is strictly personal," said Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, a Democrat who represents the Sacramento region. The inquiry has raised questions about the kinds of restricted weapons that the more than 87,000 peace officers in the state are entitled to purchase and about a 2001 law that allows them to buy assault weapons "for law enforcement purposes, whether on or off duty."

"To Walk the Earth in Safety"

The State Department released their annual report, "To Walk the Earth in Safety," about its worldwide weapons eradication program in mine clearance and destruction assistance. Th U.S. works in 32 countries to destroy weapons, as well as implement programs to assist conflict survivors and inform area residents of potential risks from unexploded munitions.

Read the report here.

Use The Crime Report for more information on international criminal justice.

U.S.-Mexico Task Force Seeks New Assault Weapon Ban

A binational task force on U.S.-Mexico border issues is calling on the Obama administration and Congress to reinstate an expired ban on assault weapons and for Mexico to overhaul its frontier police and customs agencies to mirror the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Washington Post reports.

ATF releases NY State Gun Trace Data

Firearms trace data was released by the New York field office in July.  The data was compiled from crime guns gathered in New York State from Jan 1. to Dec. 31 2008. The review found that 54 % of all firearms were recovered in New York City. The report breaks down gun recovery by region.

The report can be found here.

California Assault-Weapon Ban Has Loopholes

If you can't tell the difference between an AK-47, explicitly banned as an assault weapon in California since 1989, and the Russian American Armory Co.'s Saiga, available for purchase at gun stores locally, neither can Steve Harding the Sacramento County Sheriff's in-house firearms expert, reports the Sacramento Bee. "The round (it fires) is the same and the mechanism is the same," he said. "It's basically the same thing."

Assault weapons, as defined by California law, refer to semi-automatic guns – ones that fire one round per trigger pull. Fully automatic ones fire multiple rounds per trigger pull, and are banned by federal law except for those holding special permits. Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency physician and violence expert at the University of California Davis, said this practice created a massive loophole for gun manufacturers. "If you ban the Uzi by name, they'll call it the 'Ozzie' and bring it back," he said.

10 TX Men Sent Assault Guns To Mexico: U.S.

Ten Houston men, including three brothers, were charged yesterday in a conspiracy to ship 151 military-style weapons south of the border, the Houston Chronicle reports. It’s the region’s largest arms-trafficking case since the Obama administration vowed to do more to stem the flow of U.S. guns to Mexican drug cartel soldiers. Many of the weapons, which were bought by deceiving firearms dealers, were civilian variants of M-16 assault rifles, a weapon used by the U.S. military, and now favored by warring cartels.

The weapons, which go for up to $1,000 apiece on the retail market, were bought in cash, sometimes two or three in a day at the same gun store. In some instances, U.S. agents learned of the weapons after they were recovered at crime scenes in Mexico. In others, they were discovered by scouring records required to be kept by firearms dealers, but their whereabouts remain unknown. Mexico’s drug cartels are desperate for weaponry as they fight each other and the Mexican government.

NRA Stirs Political Pot Before Its Annual Convention

The National Rifle Association starts its annual convention May 15 in Phoenix at a time when gun owners fear the new presidential administration is ready to crack down on firearms, says the Arizona Republic .NRA vice president Wayne LaPierre is urging every "law abiding" gun owner to come to the convention to "prove to the gun banners" that the NRA will take on "anybody who attacks our firearm freedoms." Law enforcement groups are seeking a renewal of the expired federal assault weapon ban, but President Obama asays the ban is a tough sell politically and says the priority is to enforce existing gun laws.

Attorney General Eric Holder maintains that most guns in Mexico come from the U.S., but gun-ownership advocates doubt harsher U.S. rules would stem Mexico's violence. Hildy Saizow, president of Tempe-based Arizonans for Gun Safety, said there should be better regulations on sales at gun shows, including background checks on all transactions. "The NRA has stood for purchasing guns anytime, anywhere, anyplace," she said. "That's a very dangerous way to look at a product that's deadly like a gun."

Gun Sales Surge: Buyers Don't Trust Obama

On the gun counter at Ace Sporting Goods in Washington County, Pa., reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, customers are greeted with a picture of President Barack Obama next to the caption, "Salesman of the Year." The publisher of The Outdoor Wire, an online publication for the outdoors industry, credited Obama with sparing the gun industry the same kind of slump that has decimated the automakers. The White House denies planning to pursue gun controls, but many gun owners don't trust the president.

The surge in sales actually began during the election, when then-candidate Obama emerged as the front-runner. It intensified after he won. Many of those buyers are first-time gun owners. More than 4.2 million firearms background checks were performed from November 2008 through January, an increase of more than 31 percent above the 3.2 million checks from the same period a year earlier.

Rendell, LaPierre Square Off On Assault Weapon Ban

Taking a campaign for stronger gun-control measures to the national stage, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell squared off with a top National Rifle Association official on CBS's "Face the Nation" yesterday over the federal ban on assault weapons, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Rendell said there was no "rational reason" to allow the sale of assault weapons. "They are used for only one reason [] to kill and maim people," he said. Rendell, who has fought for years for tougher gun control, revived his efforts after the slayings this month of three Pittsburgh police officers who were killed by a man using an AK-47 assault rifle. At least one of the officers would still be alive, Rendell contended, if the shooter had not had a semiautomatic weapon.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, called the assault-weapons ban "a totally phony issue" and called for stronger enforcement of existing laws. The debate over reinstating the federal assault-weapons ban that expired in 2004 comes as gun owners stock up on weapons and ammunition, fearing bans under President Obama, and a growing number of urban mayors and police chiefs line up behind gun-control advocates. A gauge of the strength of the opposition to gun control outside urban areas will likely be evident tomorrow when hundreds of Pennsylvania gun owners are expected to gather for the annual right-to-bear-arms rally.

Obama Backs Arms Trafficking Treaty

President Obama, outlining plans to help Mexico combat drug violence, promised to resurrect a treaty against arms trafficking that has been stuck in Congress for 12 years but rebuffed Mexico's demands to curb sales of assault weapons in the U.S., the Arizona Republic reports. During his first official trip to Mexico, Obama said he will try to persuade lawmakers to finally approve the treaty known as CIFTA, which was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1997 but has never been ratified by the U.S. Senate. Obama showed little appetite for reviving the 1994-2004 federal assault weapons ban. During a joint press conference in Mexico City, Mexican President Felipe Calderón blamed the end of the ban for the increased firepower wielded by drug cartels.

"None of us is under the illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy, and so what we've focused on is how we can improve our enforcement of existing laws," Obama said. Obama tried to cast his visit to Mexico as the start of a new era of cooperation between the countries. But the disagreement over weapons sales was only one of several divisions that emerged during a news conference after his meeting with Calderón.

Your Guide to Columbine Coverage

On Monday, April 20, the nation marked the 10-year anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. The Crime Report has compiled a selection of media remembrances of that day, as well as updates on issues including gun control and school safety:

USA Today: "Lessons from Columbine: More security, outreach in schools" 

"10 Years Later, The Real Story Behind Columbine"

"No 'Closure' for Columbine Class of 1999"

Wall Street Journal: "The Safety Lessons of Columbine, Re-examined"

Denver Post: "Easing of Gun-Show Check Survives"

Washington Post: Book Review: "No Right to Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech"

Slate: Excerpt from Dave Cullen's book Columbine: "'God I Want to Torch and Level Everything'"

Learn more about School Shootings, Gun Control Advocacy, Assault Weapons, and Psychology inside The Crime Report.

PA Officials Seek Assault-Weapon-Ban Renewal

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell urged Congress yesterday to re-enact a ban on the sale and possession of assault weapons, which criminals sometimes use to kill police, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. "How much blood has to be spilled in the streets of America before we say enough is enough?" asked Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper, who is still grieving over the killings of three Pittsburgh officers on April 4. "The use of assault weapons isn't for sport. It's only meant for harm."

Pittsburgh Mayor Ravenstahl also urged Congress to act on the assault weapons ban, which was enacted in 1994 but expired in 2004. Rendell and Ravenstahl also want the state legislature to require handgun owners to report to police, within 72 hours, any weapons that are lost or stolen, as a way of reducing "straw purchasers," who sell guns to criminals and report them as lost or stolen. The governor wants to permit Pennsylvania cities and towns to enact their own gun control laws. Since 1996 the legislature has given itself the sole authority to pass laws regarding gun sales and possession.

Investors Drive Up Gun Prices In Buying Surge

Part of the gun-buying surge in the U.S. is fueled by people buying weapons the way others invest in a hot stock, reports the Wall Street Journal. All the buying is pumping up prices. Many popular models of guns are back-ordered for a year or more. Some manufacturers are operating plants 24 hours a day. The 2009 edition of the Blue Book of Gun Values, the average price of European-made AK-47s -- the Soviet-era military weapon now made in several countries -- doubled from $350 last September to more than $700 by the end of 2008.

Nearly four million background checks -- a key measure of sales because they are required at purchase from a federally licensed seller -- were performed in the first three months of 2009. That is a 27 percent increase over last year. Some buyers say they are stocking up in anticipation of new gun-control laws; others say they're worried about deteriorating public safety as the economy worsens.

Expert Forecasts More Mass Killings In Recession

Mass killings in the U.S. are expected to continue during the current poor economic conditions, Eric Hickey, director of forensic studies at Alliant International University in San Diego, tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Hickey said in the recession of the early 1990s, the U.S. was seeing almost one multiple killing per week. Gradually, that declined to about one per month, but "you knew that couldn't last and it started going back up a year ago or so, and in the past three or four months, there has been a spike, which could be an anomaly, but I don't think so. would be shocked if we didn't continue on this track for a while."

Revenge is the most common factor in mass murders, said criminologist Jack Levin of Northeastern University. Says Levin: "At the most basic level, the revenge is directed against family members," who are the main victims in about 30 percent of all mass killings. "The next most likely target is the workplace, where an ex-worker who was fired or laid off comes back shooting, killing the boss and co-workers." Finally, there are mass killers who blame society in general for their problems and may walk into a mall and open fire, or target certain groups for destruction, including the police, because "the police are representatives of society." Some experts cite easy gun access in the U.S.: "You need to understand how our society permits easy access to lots and lots of guns if you're going to understand why these kinds of killings happen so much in the United States as opposed to somewhere else," said David Hemenway, a health policy professor at Harvard. "As far as I can tell, the psychological problems of these killers are not unique to the United States, but what is unique is that it's so easy for people in the U.S. to get access to weapons." Daniel Nagin, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University, agreed. "It's technologically impossible to kill a lot of people very quickly without access to these assault weapons," he said.

Why Obama Dropped Gun Control: It's A "Dead Loser"

President Obama and top White House aides have all but abandoned the assault-weapon issue, Newsweek reports. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel helped orchestrate passage of the assault-weapons ban that expired in 2004 when he worked in the Clinton White House. Now he and other strategists have decided they can't afford to tangle with the National Rifle Association at a time when they're pushing other priorities, like economic renewal and health-care reform, say congressional officials who have raised the matter. "The Democratic Party understands this is a losing issue [] It's a dead loser," says Rep. Dan Boren [D-OK]. "Its one of the reasons they lost the Congress in 1994 and Al Gore was not elected president in 2000."

After Richard Poplawski killed three Pittsburgh police officers and used an AK-47 and other guns to engage police in a standoff, national political leaders did not raise troubling questions about how such an unstable character could obtain easy access to high-powered weapons. Past champions of stricter gun control are silent even though Mexico's violent drug cartels are arming themselves with high-powered assault weapons purchased at U.S. gun stores and smuggled south of the border. When he ran for president, Obama promised to restore a federal ban on certain semiautomatic assault guns—a position still on the White House Web site. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has also lifted virtually all restrictions on imports of foreign-made assault weapons, permitting a flood of cheap Romanian, Bulgarian and other Eastern European AK-47s to enter the country, according to gun-control groups. "There's been an absolute deluge of these weapons," says Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center.