North Carolina's role in crime gun trafficking

The data is in, and it doesn't look good:

A study due to be released this week by a coalition called Mayors Against Illegal Guns uses previously unavailable federal gun data to identify what it says are the states that most often export guns used in crimes across state lines.

The study also seeks to draw a link between gun trafficking and gun control laws by analyzing gun restrictions in all 50 states in areas like background checks for gun purchases, policies on concealed weapons permits and state inspections of gun dealers. It finds that, across the board, those states with less restrictive gun laws exported guns used in crimes at significantly higher rates than states with more stringent laws.

I've been analyzing this study for the last couple of hours, and it looks like North Carolina has slightly better laws than most of our Southern neighbors, but we're still one of the top exporters of crime guns to cities like New York. We've been in the Top Ten in total volume of crime guns for the last four years:

2006 = 1,950

2007 = 2,063

2008 = 1,964

2009 = 1,775

Now, we drop out of the Top Ten when you start looking at the rate of crime guns vs total population (per capita), and the less populous South Carolina moves up. But it's plain (to me) that we've still got some serious problems, and it looks like the "gun show loophole" is at the heart of those problems.

In that scenario, permits are still required for the purchaser of a handgun, but private, "occasional" gun dealers are not required to run background checks, and are not responsible for screening fraudulent/falsified documentation. This is one (very) big reason that gun shows are so popular; they provide a convenient "gathering" of occasional gun sellers for those who wouldn't (normally) qualify for such purchases.

Just a little side-note: Being one link in the chain of Eastern seaboard, "I-95 corridor" states makes us a convenient source for crime guns headed up to Northern urban centers, and (like it or not) that means we have a responsibility to discourage or slow the flow of crime guns to these areas, if at all possible.

Of course, the NRA has to throw in its half-pence:

Chris W. Cox, the National Rifle Association’s chief lobbyist in Washington, dismissed the upcoming report as “a cute little P.R. stunt.” When told of the main findings, Mr. Cox said the report appeared to have relied on “flawed assumptions” about how guns flow across state lines and are traced back to their original purchasers.

“It’s completely bogus for a group with a clear political agenda to release some study based on selective statistics,” he said. “This is not a serious discussion. But this is what we’ve come to expect from Mayor Bloomberg and his gun control agenda.”

You can't have a serious discussion with an idiot.