When a gun is used for crime in another state, most likely it came from Georgia
ALBANY, GEORGIA -- It's a top ten list Georgia does not want to be on.
When a gun is used for crime in another state, nearly 50 percent of the time it will come from one of ten states.
In Georgia, law enforcement officers say in most cases a resident will buy a gun here and sell them to someone else from another state.
“This person will then take the guns up to say New Jersey or New York, one of the really strict states. And sell them for about five times their value,” said Captain Craig Dodd of the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office.
The list was put together by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of about 500 American mayors.
Not only is Georgia on the list. It sits at the very top.
The mayors' group says many of the states are on the list because their relaxed gun laws encouraged trafficking. Gun rights advocates say they look at this list and see a totally different trend.
“Of those 10 states that they say 48.8 percent of the fire arms are coming from, those 10 states have 46.4 percent of the population in the United States,” said Chuck Turney, of Georgiacarry.org, an advocacy group looking to protect second amendment rights.
He says trying to tighten these laws will not stop crime.
“Firearm laws only affect law abiding citizens. They don't affect criminals; they're going to get firearms no matter how they have to do it,” said Turney.
Whatever the reason behind the ranking, officers say they take gun trafficking crimes very seriously.
“We’re enforcing our laws. When we catch them doing it, they are going to be behind bars. And we're going to track down if we can whoever they sold the guns to and we're going to put them behind bars as well,” said Dodd.
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