Georgia's Lax Gun Laws Led To Two Fatal Shootings Of NYPD Officers

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Similarly, the Taurus semiautomatic handgun that 28-year-old Ismaayal Brinsley used to kill Liu and Ramos in December was from the Arrowhead Gun and Pawn Shop in Jonesboro, Georgia. In 2010, Arrowhead was the fifth-largest source of guns used in crimes across the country. The shop was also the No. 1 source of out-of-state firearms seized by the NYPD in 2009.

Brinsley, like Blackwell, was a convicted felon, barred by law from purchasing or possessing a gun. But he, too, was able to get one.

Guns bought legally in Southern states including Georgia, which have less restrictive gun laws, are often sold illegally in Northern states like New York. (About 90 percent of guns used in crimes in New York City come from out of state.) This lucrative black market connecting the South and the North has become known as the Iron Pipeline, in which Georgia is a major point of origin.

In 2013, nearly 3,100 guns from crime scenes in other states were traced back to Georgia, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. And between 2006 and 2009, Georgia was the leading source of firearms used for crimes in other states, according to a report from Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

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There are a number of ways in which Georgia's laws enable its central role in the Iron Pipeline.

The state has no penalty for "straw purchasers," people who buy guns legally in one state and then sell them to gun traffickers who cross state lines. When the weapons end up at a crime scene in another state, straw purchasers can claim that the guns were lost or stolen. That’s because gun owners in Georgia aren’t required, as they are in many other states, to contact the police when their guns go missing.

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