7 East Coast Cities Announce Planned Gun-Crime Database
Seeking to coordinate state and federal efforts to reduce gun crime and control firearms trafficking, a group of East Coast cities and a federal agency have announced a new tactic in their ongoing battle: A planned joint database that will make it easier to share information between jurisdictions along the Interstate 95 corridor.
The database, which will include information from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is expected to be up and running later this year, reports the Associated Press. Boston, New York, Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and Richmond, Va., are among the participating cities.
The New York Sun reports that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a driving force in organizing the group.
“A system of regional data-sharing has the potential to fundamentally alter the battlefield in the war against interstate gun trafficking,” he said yesterday at Baltimore City Hall before a meeting of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “Right now, cities are fighting largely in isolation. With a regional data-sharing system, we will be able to communicate with one another far more consistently and effectively.”
