WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Tracing guns requires team effort

Tracing guns requires team effort

By Cheryl Mercedes - bio | email

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - In Louisiana, almost anyone can get a license to carry a firearm, but they often end up in the hands of felons or just plain bad guys. There are many places the deadly weapons can turn up and law enforcement is fighting to keep them away from criminals.

Guns come in many different shapes, sizes and speeds. There is probably a type that fits, no matter what one desires. Todd Fabre owns Superior Pawn. He said military-style semi-automatic rifles are a hot item, especially during hunting season.

According to Fabre, for some of them, a clip holding up to 50 rounds can be used. It's his job to make sure those potentially deadly weapons do not get into the wrong hands. He said he probably sees 25 requests that are denied each year.

Fabre is the middle man between the law and the purchaser. Over the years, he's developed a sharp eye for suspicious shoppers. When he sees people in pairs, it sends up a red flag. Even after rigorous background checks and what he believes are solid records of every firearm that pass through his doors, some still slip through the system.

According to Sgt. Don Kelly with the Baton Rouge Police Department, officers seized about 1400 guns last year. Of those, 900 were labeled as evidence and 500 were marked as found property, meaning no one claimed them. Nine out of 10 were handguns, while only one out of 10 was a rifle or shotgun.

"Our goal is not to remove as many guns from the street as possible, but to move guns that are illegal or used illegally," Kelly said.

He noted most of the weapons start off as legal purchases, but through break-ins and under the table street sales, they become bad news in sticky situations. He added the guns are found in the most unusual places. Just recently, dive crews searching for a gun believed to have been used in a murder on Plank Road found three other guns in the university and city park lakes. A day later, police found a gun resting on the ledge of the I-10 bridge.

When officers recover weapons, they submit the information to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. According to Agent Milton Bonaventure with the ATF, there is always a challenge between law enforcement and criminals. He said tracing unclaimed firearms involves lots of police work.

STEP 1: Police find the gun

STEP 2: Police send the gun to the ATF

STEP 3: Agents submit information to the National Tracing Center

STEP 4: Agents contact the firearm's manufacturer

STEP 5: The manufacturer contacts the distributer to find out who the gun was shipped to

STEP 6: It eventually gets to the federal firearms licensee

"Sometimes, you'll see a firearm that may have been involved in a shooting, where a casing was recovered in New Orleans was also involved in Baton Rouge," Bonaventure said.

When that happens, agents rely on the Louisiana State Police NIBON system, record-keeping software that allows officers to match traveling firearms.

Of the 1400 firearms Baton Rouge police recovered last year, 218 were used in drug deals, 129 in assaults, 64 in homicides and 33 in robberies. It all goes back to the people behind the counter, like Todd Fabre, who meet the buyers face-to-face on a daily basis. He said it involves lots of pressure to make sure he makes the right decision, but he operates by the book.

Agents say they are working around the clock to keep the precious pieces of hardware out of the hands of criminals. They accomplish that by trying to stay at least one step ahead of them.

The Baton Rouge Police Department has recovered about 1100 firearms this year. Because there were no laws before 1968 requiring gun dealers to keep such solid records, Bonaventure said guns purchased before then are harder to trace.

Copyright 2009 WAFB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.