That’s the headline over at the anti-gun agitprop machine known as thetrace.org. Bottom line: Massachusetts blames Vermont for the fact that their gun control laws aren’t controlling guns. Illegal guns. Well, both Bernie’s home state and New Hampshire. And Maine. And Georgia. And Florida. Basically, any state that doesn’t “control the private sale of firearms.” Because we all know that criminals are stymied by “universal background checks.” Anyway, here’s The Trace’s evidence that the drugs-for-guns trade is booming in Bernie’s back yard. . .
The flow of guns on a stretch of Interstate 91 running from western Massachusetts north to Vermont has become such a well-known trafficking route that officials have dubbed it “the iron pipeline.” Police routinely find drugs, or guns, or both during traffic stops.
In February, police in Northampton, Massachusetts discovered $20,000 worth of heroin and two stolen guns during an early morning stop. A month later, a few miles up I-91, police found 230 baggies of heroin in a car headed to New Hampshire.
A nickname does not a trend make. Nor a single anecdote. Following the link to The Boston Globe provided by Trace scribe Dan Friedman, we get an idea of the number of “crime guns” that [allegedly] comprise the catchy-sounding “iron pipeline” between the Green Mountain State and the Bay State.
From January 2011 through January of this year, ATF officials said, authorities in Springfield recovered 12 guns at crime scenes that they traced to Vermont, more than any other state outside Massachusetts.
Twelve? Twelve. Wikipedia.org informs us that Massachusetts was home to 118 “gun murders” in 2010. Twelve guns traced from The Green Mountain State to the Bay State — in five years — is equivalent to roughly ten percent of one year’s total “gun murder” stat.
Which is why Friedman resorts to the anecdotal evidence combined with unsubstantiated generalizations by cops with an anti-gun axe to grind.
The intersection of the gun and drug trade is fueling violence, officials say. Weinberger says that a rare fatal shooting in his city in 2015 was the result of a drug deal gone awry.
Other drugs are often in the mix. In 2014, a Massachusetts man murdered a woman with a 9mm Glock that he bought in Brattleboro, Vermont, in exchange for crack cocaine, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives . . .
Many local officials say inconsistent gun laws are fueling the trade. Most northeastern states have enacted laws that extend background check requirements for gun purchases to include firearms sold at gun shows and unlicensed dealers. But Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine do not require such checks on private sales, making it easier for people with criminal records to buy guns in those states, and move them around New England.
“We have good gun laws in Massachusetts, but our problem is most of the guns that seem to be coming in and being used in crimes are coming from other states,” Boston Police Commissioner William Evans tells The Trace. “It’s hard for us when so many come from our border states that have lax laws.”
“Seem to be coming in.” Gotcha. Not a word about Massachusetts gun owners defending themselves by force of arms, of course. As the Globe famously and mistakenly headlined an editorial about Jimmy Carter, more mush from the wimp.