Mayor Bloomberg at a City Hall press conference in front of a display of guns confiscated by the NYPD. (William Farrington)
(
)
Virginia’s not just for lovers.
The state led the nation in producing guns recovered from crime scenes in New York City in 2011 — playing a role in 322 violent incidents here, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.
The data show that out-of-state firearms were used in a whopping 90 percent of local crimes in 2011 — up from 85 percent in 2009.
“Despite all we do to keep our city safe, we’re increasingly at the mercy of weak national gun laws and weak gun laws in other states,” declared Bloomberg, one of the nation’s loudest advocates for stricter gun-control laws.
“We have been attacking this problem from every angle, but we cannot do it alone,” the mayor added.
Bloomberg, who co-chairs the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, emphasized that fewer guns have been recovered in the city because of dwindling crime rates.
The total number recovered dropped by nearly half between 2006 and 2011 — from 7,059 to 3,980,
The mayor’s chief policy adviser, John Feinblatt, noted that states supplying the most guns to criminals in New York City often lacked common-sense laws to keep purchases in check.
“Take Virginia,” Feinblatt said at a City Hall press conference announcing the new data.
“That state requires no background checks for private sales and the legislature in that state even recently rolled back their state laws by stripping their one-gun-a-month purchase limit.”
He said Virginia has been at or near the top of the list for several years.
South Carolina — which landed at No. 3 on the list by providing 251 so-called “crime guns” in 2011 — doesn’t require lost or stolen guns to be reported, according to Feinblatt.
He said Georgia, Alabama and Texas — Nos. 5, 8 and 9, respectively — allow guns to be sold via the Internet without background checks.
Bloomberg, who has increasingly focused on donating to candidates for public office who support tighter gun control, confirmed yesterday that his group is supporting two Colorado state legislators being targeted by the National Rifle Association because they helped pass stricter gun laws this year.
“We are trying to support candidates that understand that Americans want to be safe and that too many Americans are killed,” he said.
“We’ve been very effective in helping some people get elected and some people not get elected.”
A phone call to the NRA seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.
This year to date in New York City, 1,786 guns have been taken off the streets through arrests, according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
An additional 408 were obtained through gun buy-backs and another 317 were voluntarily turned in at police-precinct station houses.