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Article on Boston homicides
An all too typical article on the issue. When Boston homicide rates plummetted during the 1990s, it must have been the gun laws. Now that they're at record rates, it must be the fault of guns coming in from other states. (Why that wouldn't have happened in the 1990s is nowhere explained). Gun traffickers are said to be buying 12 to 20 guns at a time and reselling them (altho how that's happening, with bars to purchases by nonresidents, and the requirement that any multiple handgun sales be reported to ATFE is unexplained).
The article does not explain that contradiction between this, and its statement that crime guns recovered in Boston are difficult to trace because they were sold so long ago.
The article at least acknowledges that there are two other things coming into play here. In the 90s, Boston was part of "Operation Ceasefire," targetting gang members who owned gun illegally. The approach has since been dropped (city officials blame declines in federal funding -- although why Boston can't fund its own police, and thought this was the program to be dropped, is not explained). Boston's police employment has fallen by 10%, even as the gang members locked up in the 90s are now being released. Frankly, it sounds as if the city got complacent. With homicide levels low, it figured it could back off, and scrapped the program that was keeping the levels low.
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