Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
As concerns mount over shootings and mass killings, prosecutors from 23 jurisdictions have formed a coalition to combat gun violence by sharing information on programs that work and copying effective state laws.
Guns that were purchased by undercover police officers are displayed during a news conference in New York.(Photo: Seth Wenig, AP)
The group, Prosecutors Against Gun Violence, includes attorneys from several major metropolitan centers including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Houston and Milwaukee. The non-partisan coalition will focus on issues such as reducing gang violence, weapons trafficking, the connection between domestic violence and gun violence, the link between mental illness and gun violence.
"We are really key players in fighting gun violence proactively," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., co-chairman of the group. "A police officer may make a gun arrest and have that case for 24 hours. A prosecutor may then charge that case and have that case for a year and a half before it goes to trial. In that year and a half, the prosecutor's office may gather leads from multiple witnesses. ... They may develop other intelligence about where the gun came from and how it moved through the urban system."
Vance plans to share information about his office's Crime Strategies Unit, which has its own investigators and has helped dismantle gun gangs in New York City.
"Our members will draw from our colleagues' most effective strategies and join forces to advance policies that can save lives," said Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, the other co-chairman.
The prosecutors will look at laws in various states "to assess what works in driving down gun violence and what doesn't," Vance said. "There are going to be state laws that may make our ability to fight illegal gun trafficking more effective. We want to share that and identify them."
The attorneys will discuss their successes and challenges at the group's first prosecutorial summit on gun violence prevention in Atlanta on Oct. 21 and 22.
Feuer says the group will be more than just slogans.
"This group will be successful if, a year from now, prosecutors across the nation are employing best practices, some of which they have learned from other jurisdictions in our group," he said. "If there are even two or three major policy objectives that have been achieved at state or local, or the federal level, as a consequence at least in part of the advocacy of this group, then we will have been off to a great start."
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