Senator: Florida guns used in crime elsewhere

By ROBIN MITCHELL

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

That Florida would be a rich trove for guns used in crimes elsewhere comes as no surprise to Arthur Hayhoe.

"Florida has always been a very easy place to run guns," said Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

Citing figures gleaned from federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms data, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer said Florida is the nation's leading supplier of firearms used in crimes in other states.

Schumer, a New York Democrat and one of the Senate's leading gun-control advocates, said 2,065 firearms traced to Florida were used elsewhere in crimes last year. Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas combined were the source for nearly one in four guns used in out-of-state crimes, Schumer said.

"Political eyewash," jabs back Marion Hammer, executive director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida Inc. and former National Rifle Association president.

"You know, a little bit earlier they put out a fact sheet that says Texas was No. 1," she adds. "This thing is full of outright inaccuracies."

Schumer's report blames Florida's lax licensing, permitting and registration of guns.

Not true, says Hammer. Florida requires background checks to buy from licensed gun dealers and has plenty of gun laws.

"Every dealer is required to do a check whether at a gun show or if he's sitting on his front steps," she said. "The laws are on the books; it just doesn't serve their political purposes. Why don't they enforce the laws that already are there?"

"Obviously, anyone buying a gun from a licensed dealer has to go through a background check," said Rick Morera, spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Tampa office. "Literally thousands (of would-be buyers) statewide are blocked from purchasing because we check and find a criminal history."

The state vigorously goes after people who give false information on the background check, said FDLE agent Bill Miles, who regularly sets up shop at gun shows.

"Everybody jumps on gun shows (as a source for guns that end up in criminal hands)," he said. "They are no different than a bunch of car dealers getting together to sell cars. The problem with this whole issue is they don't know how to put a handle on the real issue: How do you regulate the private sales?"

Schumer's study said the leading destinations for "Florida crime guns" are New York, Washington, D.C., and Illinois, and that Florida was one of the top three supplier states to 12 destinations and the leading supplier to three -- Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Southern states with weak gun laws provide thousands of guns to criminals in the Northeast and Midwest where restrictions are tighter, Schumer said.

"A Georgia criminal using a New York gun is a rarity. A New York criminal using a Georgia gun is commonplace," Schumer said in a release of his report he labeled "War Between the States." "Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Texas are habitual bad actors. Straw buyers know that these states have a don't ask, don't tell policy toward selling guns, and law enforcement is helpless in stopping them."

According to Schumer's study, 21 percent of the guns traced to crimes committed in Florida came from another state, but none came from Washington, D.C., only 30 from New York, 16 from Illinois and 11 each from Maryland and New Jersey.

"It's intellectually dishonest," Hammer said. "It says no Florida crime guns came from D.C. How could they? There are no gun dealers in D.C. There's no way a gun could be traced to a legitimate sale in D.C. It's dishonest. And to say at least one Florida gun was located in 45 states. It's grasping."

She labeled the study a "work of fiction."

"It's not surprising the NRA doesn't like it," said Hayhoe, of Zephyrhills. His solution to curbing the flow of guns is limiting buyers to one per month.

After Florida in the top dozen states providing guns used in out-of-state crimes were Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, California, Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Arizona, Alabama and North Carolina.

The study said states with some of the toughest gun laws -- New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maryland -- provided less than 10 percent of guns used in crimes in other states.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.