“’Despite our best gun safety laws, we have more damn guns on the street than we ever had before,’ Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in an online announcement with the other three states. ‘And if you’re not taking guns seriously, you’re not taking law and order seriously.’”
So says one of the four northeastern governors who announced yesterday that their states will share crime gun data amongst themselves. The states involved are Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Apparently the irony of “gun violence” soaring in three of the states with nation’s most restrictive gun control laws was lost on the the Constitution State’s top elected official.
The four pro-gun control governors, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ), Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA), and Gov. Ned Lamont (D-CT) announced the information sharing program yesterday on a joint Zoom call.
From the AP . . .
The states plan to share details they get from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives through “eTrace” reports that show who first bought and sold guns recovered during criminal investigations. The states can also share gun data that predates the Thursday agreement.
As a sure sign of success, the four amigos are modeling this latest effort to battle “gun violence” on the war on drugs.
“Right now, we’re all putting more police on the street; we’re community policing more folks,” Lamont said during a virtual meeting. “… Like the War on Drugs, you don’t want to just go after that kid with a nickel bag or that kid with the pistol. We’re going to take care of them, but I want to go after the kingpins. I want to go after those pushers. I want to go after those big drug and gun wholesalers, those big guns, so to speak.
The effort was, of course, cheered on by the White House . . .
We applaud today’s announcement by the Governors of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut that the states’ law enforcement agencies will share crime gun data across state lines to bolster law enforcement operations and improve public safety. This data-sharing agreement recognizes the reality that firearms cross state lines, and we therefore need a multijurisdictional approach to tackling gun violence.
Fortunately, no one should worry about any of the information gathered by the states being hacked, leaked, or otherwise misused.
The deal requires each state to designate and screen the law enforcement people who will be allowed access to the data, and it must be kept on computer systems dedicated to criminal justice.
The states must notify each other if the information is misused, including unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, modification, storage or deletion.
Whew.