There Should Be Stricter Gun Control Laws - Statement Of Frank R. Lautenberg (d-nj) Before The Senate, October 2, 1998

As a result of the Brady Act, we have helped prevent thousands of guns from getting into the hands of the wrong people. Since the Brady Act went into effect in 1994, more than 242,000 handgun purchases have been denied to convicted felons, fugitives, drug addicts, and other dangerous persons. The Domestic Violence Gun Ban in the Brady Act.. has prevented more than 6,800 firearms sales to people convicted of abusing a spouse or child.

However, the Brady Law has not completely stopped the flow of handguns to those who should not have them. Gun traffickers continue to supply an illegal gun market by buying large quantities of guns in states with lax gun laws and then reselling them on the streets—often in cities and states with strict gun laws.

If these traffickers cannot legally buy a gun themselves, or if they do not want to have their name turn up if the gun is later found at a crime scene, they find others to make the purchases for them. The trafficker pays a straw purchaser, in money or drugs, to buy twenty-five, fifty or more handguns at a time and then resells the guns to those who otherwise could not buy them—such as convicted felons, drug addicts or children.

In fact, the Maryland State Police official testified that multiple gun purchases by straw purchasers were the source of the majority of firearms used in the commission of violent crime.

My bill [the Anti-Gun Trafficking Act of 1997, S. 466] would make it far more difficult and less profitable for traffickers to conduct their deadly business, by prohibiting an individual from buying more than one handgun a month. We know this approach works because three states—Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina—have passed one-gun-a-month laws and the results have been dramatic. Gun trafficking from these states has plunged.

For instance, officers from the Virginia State Police testified that after Virginia passed its one-handgun-a-month limit in 1993, the number of crime guns traced back to Virginia from the Northeast dropped by nearly 40%. Prior to one-gun-a-month, Virginia had been among the leading suppliers of weapons to the so-called "Iron Pipeline" that feeds the arms race on the streets of northeastern cities.

In 1995, the Virginia Crime Commission conducted a comprehensive study of the one-handgun-a-month limit to determine if the law had achieved its purpose. That study found, and I quote, "Virginia's one-gun-a-month statute … has had its intended effect of reducing Virginia's status as a source state for gun trafficking."

Maryland and South Carolina showed similar results…. "Prior to the passage of the one-gun-a-month law, South Carolina was a leading source state for guns traced to New York City, accounting for 39% of guns recovered in criminal investigations. Following the implementation of the law, South Carolina virtually dropped off the statistical list of source states for firearms trafficked to the Northeast."

Maryland … passed its law in 1996 and has already seen the results. According to the testimony from the Maryland State Police:

In 1991, Maryland was nationally ranked second in terms of suppliers of crime guns to the City of New York. By 1997, one year after the passage of Maryland's one-gun-a-month law, Maryland moved out of the top ten suppliers of crime guns to New York City.

And most significant is the drop in crime that has followed enactment of limits on handgun sales. For example, in Virginia, the number of murders, robberies and aggravated assaults committed with a firearm significantly dropped after 1993 when the limit went into effect….

Limits on handgun purchases, while disrupting gun traffickers, have little or no effect on the sportsman or law-abiding citizen because a very small percent of all handgun purchases involve multiple sales. Virginia State Police reported only 6% of handgun purchases were multiple sales. But of these, nearly 75% were semi-automatic weapons, the weapon of choice among gun traffickers. Mayor Rendell testified that less than 1% of handgun purchasers in Philadelphia bought more than twelve handguns in a twelve-month period….