To The Reader’s Forum:

I don’t expect much from the editors of The Post-Journal but their opinion piece of April 20, 2024, suggesting that New York’s strict gun laws are not keeping firearms out of the wrong hands was a testament to their lack of basic journalism skills.

Anyone in a position of responsibility who deems to state a public opinion on a subject serious gun crime has the obligation to do, at the very least, some basic research. Their loaded question, “New York’s doing a good job of keeping guns out of the wrong hands, isn’t it?”, is a case in point. Looking at national crime statistics shows that the progressive Northeastern states, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Delaware, with their strict gun laws, have the lowest gun-related crime in the nation. Simply looking up readily available data from the ATF, FBI, or CDC would have shown these editors that, yes, New York is doing a great job of keeping our citizens safe.

Implying that our gun laws are ineffective (they aren’t) and that the guns used in New York crime are from New York ignores the very basic question the editors should have asked, “where do these guns come from?”

A study by ATF of 12,910 guns recovered from crimes in the five boroughs from 2017 through 2021, revealed that 93% of them were from out of state; Georgia, Virginia, and South Carolina were the top three. Law enforcement refers to the I-95 corridor as the Iron Pipeline, funneling stolen guns from the southern states with lax gun laws to the Northeast.

More damning evidence of the damage done to our safety by the ‘conservative-led’ states with their lax gun laws shows them to have the highest rate of gun-related crime in our nation. Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, and South Carolina have among the least restrictive gun laws, the highest rate of gun ownership, and the highest rate of gun-related crime.

Since the vast majority of guns used in crime are stolen, it is the ‘law-abiding’ gun owners, who fail to responsibly control their deadly implements, that are the root cause of most of the gun crime in the United States.

I don’t expect much from the editors of The Post-Journal, and they often disappoint. However, when they print misleading and poorly researched opinions like this, they become part of the problem that makes our country, and its failure to enforce responsible gun ownership, one of the most violent in the world.

Tom Meara

Jamestown