It should come as no surprise that the majority of guns used in crimes in New York state between 2010 and 2015 came from outside of New York state.

That is the biggest takeaway from a report released recently by Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general. “Target on Trafficking: Analysis of New York Gun Crimes” found that 74 percent of guns used in a crime recovered in New York came from outside New York state. In Chautauqua County, 66 percent of the guns used in a crime came from outside of New York state. Most of the guns coming into Chautauqua County come from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio and Florida — states with gun laws that are ore lax than New York.

Schneiderman uses those numbers to argue that the federal government and other states should enact tougher gun laws. Doing so, Schneiderman reasons, would keep guns out of the hands of criminals committing crimes in New York state.

Obviously, something must be done to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Remember, New York’s SAFE Act was supposed to keep guns out of the hands of those who would do harm. By Schneiderman’s measure, the SAFE Act has been a failure if only because New York lawmakers failed to realize the length to which those who want to do harm will go to do so. Three years after the SAFE Act’s passage, the Second Amendment rights of people who have done nothing wrong are indeed infringed upon while people who have no business owning a gun find ways to get one.

Schneiderman is right about one thing; a piecemeal approach to gun laws is doomed to fail. Any changes must be federal in nature. But, we caution our federal representatives not to use Schneiderman’s report to justify further infringements on legal gun owners without being sure new laws will actually keep guns out of the hands of criminals. If new laws can’t guarantee to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, then they shouldn’t be passed.