This state worst
December 12, 2008

West Virginia leads America in supplying guns to criminals, according to a national mayors group.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns - a 343-city coalition led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino - issued a report this week saying more pistols used in U.S. crimes come from West Virginia than from any other state, in proportion to population.

Federal data on weapons used in murders, woundings and robberies trace them to the Mountain State at a rate of 41 per 100,000 state residents. Five nearby states counted 526 crime guns that came from West Virginia. Next-worst in this grisly traffic are Mississippi, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and other Southern, rural places.

"States that have high gun-export rates tend to have comparatively weak gun laws," the study said.

Criminals in the notorious drugs-for-guns business look for locales where they can get trunkloads of cheap pistols. They come to West Virginia, peddle their narcotics, use the profits to buy dozens of handguns, return to their home cities and reap a second profit by peddling the guns to street thugs.

A New Jersey criminal bought 22 pistols at Will's Jewelry & Loan in South Charleston. Later, one was used to wound two New Jersey policemen. They sued and won $1 million from the pawnshop.

To restrict drugs-for-guns flow, Charleston passed a one-pistol-per-month purchase limit for local stores - but no other city or the Legislature has adopted the safeguard. In fact, the Legislature forbade other West Virginia municipalities to follow Charleston's example. Lawmakers fear the powerful right-to-bear-arms lobby, which contends that the Second Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights enables everyone to carry hidden pistols.

"In the Legislature, the Second Amendment has religious connotations," Charleston Mayor Danny Jones told the Daily Mail. "...The Second Amendment crowd thinks we ought to have less restrictions and no prohibitions against selling guns at all."

Jones said wide-open sales at gun shows enable anyone to "buy a 9mm pistol that's already locked and loaded. I've witnessed it." This means that felons, addicts, psychotics, drunks, wife-beaters and the like can buy concealed weapons at shows, even though federal laws ban them from doing so at stores.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns says states should pass laws requiring (1) background checks on buyers at gun shows, (2) mandatory reporting of lost or stolen guns, (3) state inspections of gun dealers. West Virginia has none of those protections. We wish that some legislators would muster enough courage to propose them.

The mayors group is trying to reduce America's horrible murder rate and protect police officers. It's humiliating that West Virginia is the nation's worst in providing pistols for such crimes.