COLUMBUS – City, state and federal officials are banding together to fight gun violence in Columbus.
Mayor Andrew Ginther was joined by the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local law enforcement officials to announce several initiatives, including formation of a regional gun crime intelligence center, combining the resources of local law enforcement agencies as well as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification, the FBI and the ATF.
“We think it’s going to be an unprecedented way for us to share information, not just the city. Our hope is to have this be a regional approach,” Ginther said. “Criminals don’t have any respect for jurisdictional boundaries and city limits. This really needs to be an entire regional effort.”
The has set aside $5 million to acquire tools and technology that will allow it to expand its participation in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, a federal database that compares ballistic evidence to aid in solving and preventing violent gun crimes.
Another $250,000 will be used to two additional assistant U.S. attorneys to prosecute gun crimes.
The effort comes amid a nationwide explosion of violent gun crimes, including mass shootings in the past few days in California and other states.
Although the number of homicides in 2022 declined by one-third from the record number in 2021, Columbus police last year confiscated 3,356 illegal firearms, approximately one every nine days, assistant police chief LaShanna Potts said.
Police are also faced with the growing number of home-manufactured guns, 75 of which were seized last year, Potts said.