ATF mobile lab helps generate leads in gun violence cases
Columbus officials on Tuesday showed off dozens of illegal firearms seized as part of an ongoing effort to reduce gun violence in the city – and said the tables filled with guns represented only a fraction of guns seized this year.
Mayor Andrew Ginther said at a press conference that city police have recovered about 1,500 guns so far in 2022. Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said about 1,200 of those guns were seized by police.
Ginther said a spread of recovered firearms on display across two tables, which ranged from revolvers to magazine-fed pistols, shotguns and rifles, represented only about 10% of the guns that have been seized.
“Think about what we can do together, if we truly are willing to look in the mirror and acknowledge that gun violence is a public health crisis in this community, (and) in communities around America,” Ginther said.
City officials were joined at the press conference by 16-year-old Tyrae Walker, whose father was killed by gun violence 10 years ago.
“Many have said that even in the absence of my father, I turned out OK, because I did not take the paths of the streets,” Walker said. “However, I do not stand before you as a person of privilege, but I stand before you as someone who is underprivileged, like many, because of the absence of our mothers and fathers due to gun violence.”
Ginther and other city officials said that they were doing whatever they can to reduce the number of guns on the street.
City Attorney Zach Klein said the city is planning to spend $250,000 to send two full-time attorneys from his office to serve as special assistant United States attorneys to help prosecute “some of the worst gun violent offenders in our community” on the federal level.
Chief Bryant said the city police division worked with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to have its mobile National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) lab stationed in Columbus for the first five months of 2022.
NIBIN is a national database of digital images of spent bullets and cartridge cases that were found at crime scenes or test-fired from confiscated weapons. The ATF manages the system and provides the equipment to crime labs around the country.
Bryant said the presence of the NIBIN lab — which was staffed by Columbus police task force officers and ATF agents — increased the amount of firearms and evidence entered into the national database and generated some 1,100 leads, which she said helped solve cases and identify suspects.
The work has also shown that guns have flowed into Columbus from other areas, Bryant said, while some guns from Columbus have been used in crimes in other states.
Bryant said the lab was so successful that Columbus was named an “ATF correlation center,” which will allow city police to process NIBIN leads faster.
“These developments will put Columbus on the fast track toward a more evidence-based policing that will serve its residents in a manner that protects neighborhoods from those who commit violent gun crimes,” she said.
Ginther, a Democrat, said the Republican-controlled
Ohio General Assembly passing bills like the permitless carry law that went into effect June 13 is having a stifling effect on local efforts to reduce gun violence.
Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine in March signed the bill, allowing Ohio residents 21 and older to conceal firearms they are legally allowed to own without training or permits. The law also removed the legal requirement for gun owners to tell police they are armed when stopped.
“More guns, less training, fewer permits are precisely what we do not need at this moment,” Ginther said, “and will in no way prevent more senseless gunrelated deaths from plaguing our neighborhoods and shattering the lives of our neighbors.”
Ginther said preemption laws prevent the city from taking moves to restrict firearms at a local level.
“If (the state legislators) refuse to move on gun violence in a thoughtful and serious way — then they need, at least, to get out of our way,” Ginther said.
Cole Behrens is a reporter at The Columbus Dispatch covering public safety and breaking news. You can reach him at Cbehrens@dispatch.com