What Works

Taking a Hard Line on Gun Crime

by Brandon Bryn, Web Writer and Content Manager

Of all the violent crimes committed on America’s streets, perhaps the most far-reaching and devastating ones are those that involve firearms.  Not only do gun crimes permanently scar or kill their victims, but entire families can be torn apart by the loss of a loved one.  Sadly, lives are ruined every day with the simple, detached movement of a finger on a trigger.  That’s why most people are so empathetic of gun crime victims and their families. In response to this overwhelming public opinion, most states and the federal government have addressed the problem of gun violence with a wide variety of laws, policies, and enforcement strategies.  Some have yielded very positive results while others have been proven ineffective.  But it’s important that the strategies credited with effectively decreasing gun crime are shared with states and police departments across the country in the hope that those best practices can be replicated in other regions.

In 2001, the federal government created a national program called Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) to crack down on gun violence.  The program mandates a hard line against criminals who use guns, and is meant to increase coordination between local, state, and federal law enforcement.  The goal of PSN is to provide programs with the tools they need to prevent gun violence in their cities and states. The federal government has appropriated about $1.5 billion for PSN since its inception, and those funds are being used to “hire new federal and state prosecutors, support investigators, provide training, distribute gun lock safety kits, deter juvenile gun crime, develop and promote community outreach efforts, and to support other gun violence reduction strategies,” according to PSN’s website.  Furthermore, federal firearms prosecutions have increased by about 73 percent under PSN. More than 93 percent of defendants charged with federal firearms offenses in 2005 received prison time, and 68 percent of those defendants were sentenced to more than three years behind bars. PSN’s bottom line is evident: “If you use a gun illegally, you will do hard time.”

Still, against the backdrop of Project Safe Neighborhoods, many city and state governments are trying to do even more to reduce violent crime and crack down on illegal guns in particular.  The city of Philadelphia, PA, which is currently battling a devastating influx of gun violence, just implemented a new strategy they called the Philadelphia Gun Removal Program, which was modeled after an effective pilot program in St. Louis, Missouri, called the Consent to Search Program.  Because law enforcement agents are often unable to obtain search warrants for private homes, under the Consent to Search Program police officers simply knocked on doors and asked an adult if they could search the premises for illegal guns.  The purpose of the program was to remove illegal firearms, especially from the hands of juveniles, without seeking criminal prosecution.  So, participating residents who signed a written consent were informed that no one in the household would be charged with illegal possession.  The concept might sound naive, but the results were astounding: A full 98 percent of households that were approached consented to the searches, and guns were confiscated from half of those houses.  Philadelphia’s Gun Removal Program is working in much the same way as the St. Louis program. Officers are trained in “low-key” approach techniques and simply request searches.  If an illegal firearm is found, no one in the consenting household can be charged with that crime, unless it is found that the gun has been used in a prior crime.  In that case, charges may be filed against anyone involved in the prior crime.  Either way, the final result is fewer illegal firearms on the street. 

But perhaps the most “miraculous” example of a city that took action against gun crime was Boston, MA, back in the 1990s.  In what later became known as the “Boston Miracle,” law enforcement officials initiated a program called Operation Ceasefire.  It charged police officers with the task of connecting more with their communities and with the at-risk youth in their city.  Law enforcement agents made a list of the most dangerous and violent offenders in the city, and met with them face-to-face in order to deliver one final warning.  They assured the offender that they were adopting a zero-tolerance policy with them, and any subsequent infraction, no matter how minor, would be followed by swift and severe punishment.  They also offered the offender social services, such as job training and education.  The underlying message from police and the community: We know who you are and we are not going to tolerate your crimes any longer.  Again, this program may have seemed naïve at first blush, but the results were amazing.  Probably due to a social phenomenon related to individuals being singled-out in society, gun crime dropped almost immediately.  The second year of Operation Ceasefire in Boston marked a 71 percent reduction in homicides by persons 24 and younger and also a 70 percent decrease in overall gun assaults.  The general consensus is that most violent youths feel outcast from society, and that by being singled-out and spoken to lets them know that the community wants them to be positive contributors to society, rather than contributors to the crime rate.  Last year, Oakland, CA also adopted the Operation Ceasefire program to address gang violence, although no statistics or evaluations are available yet.  Hopefully, Oakland will fare as well as Boston did.

For now, gun crime continues to be a serious problem all over the country.  According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, handguns were used in 55 percent of all homicides in 2005, and another type of gun was used in 16 percent of them.  On top of that, the FBI’s Crime in the United States 2006 report indicates that violent crime is back on the rise after years of decline.  So it seems very important that we all continue to share effective crime prevention techniques with each other and adopt proven strategies and best practices where they seem appropriate.