NEW ORLEANS — According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, last year law enforcement seized about 1600 guns in New Orleans. 1100 of them were stolen from vehicles.
“Primarily handguns,” said Marlin Ford, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the ATF in the New Orleans area. “We do come across rifles but the easiest to handle is the handgun, the semi-automatic weapons.”
Agent Ford says there has been no drop off in the number of guns on the streets since the beginning of the new year.
“We’re seeing crime scenes with 20, 30, 40 shell casings. They are firing indiscriminately, and they are unloading these weapons. That’s why it’s so dangerous for the community.”
In response to the violence, the ATF formed a dedicated gun crime unit focusing on people who are prohibited from carrying a firearm such as convicted felons.
“We’ve brought in task force officers from the surrounding parishes as a force multiplier, to focus on those crimes and those individuals who are high priority,” Ford said.
According to our partners at the Times Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, federal weapons prosecutions shot up last year in the 13-parish Eastern District of Louisiana to their highest numbers in at least 15 years.
The United States Attorney in New Orleans is now hiring two additional prosecutors to handle the increased volume of new federal cases.
“Depending on the type of crime, we have longer sentences,” Ford said. “The potential for detention, federal jurisdiction is significantly higher. You have a different process that plays out in the federal system.”
Mayor Latoya Cantrell is now asking for the ATF to continue its aggressive crackdown on illegal guns.
Agent Ford said they understand the importance of her request.
“We’ve met with the mayor, our director has met with the mayor, so we’re working, we’re committed to reducing crime and making this community safer.”
The feds bring manpower and significant crime fighting tools to the table.
They use technology to trace the history of an illegal gun and determine whether it’s been used in a prior crime and who originally purchased the weapon.
“We see that these guns are passed from one person to the next person, used in multiple crimes, so that evidence is crucial to investigating and hopefully apprehending these individuals,” Ford said.
Getting illegal guns and the worst of the worst criminals off the street is the goal and a proven strategy for reducing violent crime.