SOME 141,500 guns were collected at crime scenes in America in 2007. Over 42,000 of them had been transported across state lines. A report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group of 300 city mayors, considers which states are the source of most weapons used in crime. The group found that Georgia was the biggest single supplier, with 2,631 weapons traced back to the state. Florida, Texas, Virgina and Califorina each supplied over 2,000. Take population of the source state into account, however, and West Virginia, which exported over 40 such guns for every 100,000 of its people, tops the league. The rate of “export” of such weapons is 11.7, on average, for all states. But for states that require background checks on those buying handguns at shows, it is roughly halved, at 5.7.

AFP