NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Talks NYC Gun Control

Steve Adubato goes one-on-one with NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman about the solutions that have been introduced to help reduce the number of guns on the street in New York City.

1/26/17 #2010

Excerpt:

"Hi, Steve Adubato at the Tisch WNET studio here in the heart of Lincoln Center. Recently, I had the chance to speak with New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman about the serious gun trafficking problem here in New York State. Here now is that conversation. In a report by the New York Attorney General's office shows that 74% of all guns involved in crimes that are recovered by law enforcement come from out of state and 9 out of 10 handguns recovered come from out of state. All of this with New York State having some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. With us now is the Attorney General of New York State, Eric Schneiderman, to make sense of all of this. Attorney General, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Describe the problem of gun trafficking and, by the way, the report is actually called "Target on Trafficking". Right. "Target on Trafficking" is a report we just issued. It tells us several very important things. First of all New York's gun laws work. In New York City, 92% of the handguns which are really the weapons of choice for gangs and violent criminals recovered by law enforcement come from out of state so the bad guys are not even trying to get their guns here because our gun permitting laws actually do work. We also know that most of the guns used in crimes in New York State come from a very small number of states. 86% total statewide of all the handguns used in crime come from 7 states. The traditional Iron Pipeline states heading south to Florida and then out in western New York. You have to add in Ohio, because some of the guns that show up in Buffalo, Niagara, places like that come from Ohio. So it proves that tough gun laws work. If every state had a mandatory background check at gun shows, as we do, because we closed the gun show loophole here and my office actually worked with the gun show operators here to do that. If every state required a permit, we would have an end to this gun trafficking which is pushing guns into the hands of criminals up the Iron Pipeline everyday. So it's called the Iron Pipeline. Why? That's the term that was coined because we know the guns are coming up I-95 from Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Those are really the states that predominate guns going into New York City. Out in western New York, it's a little different. You have to add on Ohio, but New York City and the suburbs... I was out in Suffolk County last week with a young police officer Mark Collins, who had been shot twice by..."