Report: 74% of 'crime' guns come from outside N.Y.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Seventy-four percent of guns used in crimes in New York originated from other states, and an even larger percentage of recovered handguns came from outside the state, a report Tuesday found.

While New York has strong gun-control laws, the flow of guns from other states has hampered New York's ability to control gun crime, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in the report.

“The data makes one thing abundantly clear: New York’s strong gun laws are being undermined at every turn by lax laws in other states,” Schneiderman, who will release the report later Tuesday, said in a statement.

He said 86% of handguns between 2010 and 2015 recovered by law enforcement in New York came from out of state.

Schneiderman said the high rates show that New York's gun woes are the result of other states' porous laws.

"The point of the report today is to prove that no matter how tough your laws are, if we do not have better laws in other states and better laws at the federal level, guns will continue to flow into the hands of criminals,'' he said at a Manhattan news conference.

The report examined the purchase history of the nearly 53,000 “crime guns” recovered by law enforcement in New York between 2010 and 2015. A “crime gun” was defined as any gun connected to a crime secured by law enforcement.

The data, based on an examination of federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives statistics, showed the problem of illegal guns emanates from states with weaker gun laws.

That's particularly the case along the East Coast's Interstate 95 corridor, including states such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia, Schneiderman said.

Of those states, the most — or 15% of the total — came from Virginia, followed by 13% from Pennsylvania, the report said.

New York laws

In 2013, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature passed the SAFE Act, a series of tough gun measures that gun-rights groups opposed.

But Cuomo and gun-rights advocates have complained the law's effectiveness has been hindered by less strong laws in other states and on the national level.

“New York proudly passed the strongest gun laws in the nation, but when someone can hop into a car, buy a gun just over the border and bring it back to commit a crime, Congress has failed in its prime responsibility to protect its citizens," Cuomo said in a statement Tuesday in response to the report.

Poughkeepsie Police Chief Thomas Pape said the problem is apparent in their arrests.

"It’s an issue and has been for some time," said Pape.

"As strict as the gun laws are here in New York, unfortunately other states don’t share those type of laws," he said, "and it is very easy for someone to purchase a weapon, say in Virginia, or do a straw purchase — legally have the person purchase the weapon in another state."

Schneiderman urged Congress to pass laws that would require universal background checks and close sale loopholes at gun shows.

He also said Congress should make gun trafficking a federal crime and expand data tracking of guns.

Gun recoveries

Of the 52,915 firearms recovered between 2010 and 2015, only 6%, or almost 3,200, came from the possessor who was the original purchaser.

At nearly 40 recoveries per 100,000 people last year, New York's per-capita recovery rate was half the national average of 84 per 100,000 people.

Of the 30,595 guns that could be tracked, 6,162 appeared to be recently brought into the state.

In the report, 34,344 of the 46,514 recovered guns came from another state — above the national average for out-of-state guns.

More than half the guns recovered came from the so-called "Iron Pipeline" along the I-95 corridor.

New York had a high rate of out-of-state gun recoveries: the 74% recovery rates compared with a national average of 29%.

Spector writes for the Gannett Albany (N.Y.) Bureau. Follow Joseph Spector on Twitter: @GannettAlbany