This was emailed to me by reader JKB:

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I’ve been taking a look at this Syracuse University Clearinghouse on federal law enforcement data (http://trac.syr.edu/). I got to the clearinghouse via this post at instapundit. The ATF data is interesting. Seems the ATF enforcement is more active in rural areas than in the big cities. I looked up Philadelphia out of curiosity since it doesn’t appear on the list of low activity. I found some interesting details which I lay out below; #1 in referrals but low prosecutions, top reason for non-prosecution: No federal interest.

I hope you find this useful if you weren’t already aware of the clearinghouse. I enjoy both your blogs. Keep up the good work.

BTW, the Tennessee East (Knoxville) ATF district is an active area for ATF referrals (18th out of 90) and has a good prosecution and conviction rate with longer than average sentences.

JKB

From the summary of Regional Patterns in ATF Enforcement:

Big cities have a reputation for having more armed felons than rural areas. And the ATF, moving out of the drug and alcohol enforcement business, is now concentrating its energies on prosecuting previously convicted felons who have been discovered with weapons.

Why then, when considered in terms of the number of referrals in relation to population, are six of the nation’s “big city” districts among the least active? In FY 2002, for example, California South (San Diego), California Central (Los Angeles), Illinois North (Chicago), California North (San Francisco), Massachusetts (Boston), and the District of Columbia all fell in the bottom third of the 90 federal judicial districts in the United States in terms of this particular measure.

link

As for Philadelphia:

Seems Philadelphia was #1 for referrals for prosecutions (2004) (latest data available free online)

link

But is #2 is declinations of prosecution (2004) or 89th out of 90 in referrals actually prosecuted

link

Interestingly, in the Pennsylvania East (Philadelphia) district, the top reason for declining to prosecute for 2003 (81.5%) and 2004 (86.4%) is “Minimal federal interest or no deterrent value”. (Note-There is a separate categories for prosecuted by other authorities, insufficient evidence, etc.)

link

The US Attorney for Eastern PA lists Safe Neighborhoods on top of his initiatives

Project Safe Neighborhoods is a firearms initiative that aggressively targets violent and dangerous firearms offenders in the local court systems (Philadelphia County and the surrounding suburban counties) for prosecution in the federal system. By prosecuting these cases in the federal system, the local and federal authorities hope to take advantage of a more certain and severe sentencing scheme, the pre-trial detention of federal defendants pending trial, and the swifter disposition of these cases in federal court

link

However, he seems to not find a federal interest to prosecute 85% of the cases the ATF referred for prosecution with 86.4% being declined due to lack of federal interest or no deterrent value. I wonder if the US Attorney had prosecuted Sergeant Liczbinski’s killers for the multitude of gun charges they had prior that fateful day if there would have been a deterrent value?
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Interesting. A few notes:

So, what about enforcing the laws on the books. Why not try that first instead of clamoring with calls to do more, harder! Even though we’re not doing much with what we have, apparently.

As far as not prosecuting in the big cities, I wonder if that’s because ATF figure big cities with big PDs ought to do that on their own. It is, after all, not entirely uncommon for local PDs in small towns to generally look the other way when it comes to federal gun laws. If you don’t believe me, visit south Texas one day.

Here in Knoxville, our police are involved in Project Safe Neighborhoods. The signs are literally everywhere. I guess the prosecution rates relate to participation in that program.

I also found this bit interesting:

Are there not a fair number of armed felons in these six cities? Is it possible that these particular police departments are so proficient in the gun control business that ATF managers decided to deploy their troops in other parts of the country? Perhaps.

But the ten districts that come out on top in the listing of per capita ATF referrals raise other kinds of questions. This curious list includes Tennessee West (Memphis), Nevada (Las Vegas), Kentucky East (Lexington), Rhode Island (Providence), Louisiana Middle (Baton Rouge), Missouri West (Kansas City), Utah (Salt Lake City), Delaware (Wilmington), Oklahoma North (Tulsa) and North Dakota (Fargo).

So, no sign they’re out in South Texas either. Of course, that explains why drugs come in and guns go out.

More info here.

Interesting stuff, nonetheless.

Update: Ouch:

So if the feds aren’t using the laws to go after actual violent criminals, but are using the law to go after people like Wayne Fincher, David Olafson, and various other folks who are no threat to polite society, what use are they really in terms of public safety? What is the “federal interest” in sending hobbyists to federal prison, but not violent felons?

More ATF stuff here.

Seems the number one source of crime guns for New York is, err, New York. Unpossible! We’ve been told it’s all those dumb, cousin-humping rednecks from the south sending the guns there.

At the other biased Washington paper.

It has a new name but the content looks the same.

Where Great Britain used to be. More here.

In Dallas:

Dallas County commissioners are asking the county criminal court judges to generate more revenue from their courts or possibly lose funding for some key programs such as drug court and jail education, as well as and services for the homeless and mentally ill.

Silly me. I thought courts were supposed to mete out justice. Not bring in bling.

First, Red’s Trading Post was being investigated for errors in firearms transactions. Said investigation was, well, dubious at best and what we’ve come to expect from ATF. Now, they’ve gone and had the audacity to own land where a future city hall needs to be.

This is amusing:

City officials say the deal is legal, though they acknowledge that they had to work around state law that bars urban renewal board members from benefiting from the projects they oversee.

Because laws are for little people.

Now, I’ve not really followed nor particularly given a crap about this AP blogger con job. But it looks like they’re considering charging bloggers for content:

In the name of “defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt” the Associated Press is now selling “quotation licenses” that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles. The licenses start at $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words.

Like Rusty says, they’ve gone from dismissive of blogs to concerned. But that’s not the funny part, this is:

Now, in a slightly ironic twist, the AP is taking content from a blog site. Namely, mine.

In a news item about the e-mail from Judge Kozinski’s wife that I posted on this site, an AP article lifted numerous passages.

I counted 154 words quoted from my post. That’s almost twice the number of words contained in the most extensive quotation in the Drudge Retort.

So am I going to be an ass and threaten to charge them, or sue them, or demand that they remove the quotes? Of course not. They benefited from my content and I benefited from their link.

Oops. I think $10,000 per word ought to cover it.

Ah, zombies!

Squeaky tells us gunnies to listen up:

Jesse tells us that there’s a bill trying to get pushed through by a couple of Memphis Senators that would make serialization of ammunition required by January of 2009.

No worries. This is the second (maybe third) time this has come up. And it will again get killed in committee.

Barack Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Obama has proposed, I shit you not, a Credit Card Bill of Rights. You see, children, you’re just too fucking stupid to be trusted with managing your debt. And you’re too fucking stupid to read a contract before you sign it. So big brother will be there. And it will force credit card companies to play nice and fair. Because, you know, spelling out the terms in advance isn’t fair. And, though it’s just a rumor, they may even be required to give you a puppy.

So, Al Gore waited until there was only one left and endorsed him. I mean, who could have possibly predicted that a Democrat would endorse another Democrat?

Video of The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership trying to weasel out of Helmke’s concession.

So true:

Politicians never accuse you of “greed” for wanting other people’s money — only for wanting to keep your own money.

I’ve talked before about how anti-gunners suffer some sort of belief in mysticism because they think inanimate contain evil spirits that drive otherwise ordinary folks to commit bloody rampages. Yet, they naturally (like everything else) project those feelings on gun rights folks.

Well, looks like they also like to occasionally exorcise those evil spirits.

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails:

Whenever you propose a new law, imagine what the results would be if that law was enforced by your worst enemy or the stupidest person you know.

Well, one of those two seems to be in charge now.

In Idaho:

The last day of the party’s state convention went long and at times got nasty. In the barn-like Bonner County Fairgrounds, where politics will give way to a horse and mule expo next week, GOP delegates battled faulty microphones and disparate views in a fight for the party’s soul.

Semanko was pushed to victory largely by an eclectic group consisting of supporters of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and social conservatives who want to shift the party to the right.

Against civilian contractors?

The guns of Heat.

Remington 1740.

Robert Mugabe:

We shed a lot of blood for this country. We are not going to give up our country for a mere X on a ballot. How can a ball point pen fight with a gun?

In the AP:

The guns case — including Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns — is widely expected to be a victory for supporters of gun rights. Top officials of a national gun control organization said this week that they expect the handgun ban to be struck down, but they are hopeful other gun regulations will survive.

How many are saved by firearms each year?

Getting positive press in New Jersey? Wow. Photo gallery here.

Five police shootings in five days? Unpossible!

Jesse Jackson decided to fight gun violence by trying to shut down a gun maker who is not responsible for gun violence:

Vowing to intensify his campaign against gun violence, Rev. Jesse Jackson held a protest rally Saturday at a Lake Barrington semiautomatic rifle manufacturer.

Leading 80 supporters to the remote industrial park that houses D.S. Arms, Jackson said assault weapons were turning Chicago into a war zone.

Call me crazy, but I just don’t think thugs in Chicago are using $5,000 rifles to commit crimes. And hats off to DS Arms for standing up to them.

Smart money says Heller opinion will be released Monday, June 23. Got plans?

AC interviews Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam regarding future political aspirations, namely governor.

This is the part where, as promised, I remind everyone that Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam is a member of Mayors Against Guns. Mayors Against Guns is an anti-gun group headed by NYC’s Michael Bloomberg. It is funded, in part, by the anti-gun Joyce Foundation. Barack Obama was on the board of directors for Joyce for eight years, doling out money to fake grassroots gun groups.

Past coverage of this group here, here, here, here, here, and here.

While Paul Helmke has pre-conceded Heller, the VPC predicts it will go their way 9-0.

I missed VPC blog.

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