States Banding Together To Tackle Illegal Guns

WASHINGTON (WJZ)—Illegal guns moving across state lines, killing people here and throughout the Mid-Atlantic. It's become so bad, states are now banding together to slow that flow of death.

Alex DeMetrick has more on the part Maryland is playing.

Murder in Baltimore has two common elements: someone shot to death and a gun.

A WJZ investigation traced one gun stolen in North Carolina, that years later murdered two men in two days in Baltimore.

"One gun, two families whose lives were destroyed or at least changed in a matter of minutes," said Baltimore Police Lt. Donny Moses.

Change is what brought attorneys general from Virginia, D.C. and Maryland to meet in Washington.

"To doing everything we can to try to keep illegal guns out of the hands of dangerous people," said Mark Herring, Virginia Attorney General.

In Maryland, 40-percent of crimes are committed by guns from out of state.

In Washington, 60-percent of the guns used come from Virginia and Maryland.

And according to the ATF, in 2014 2,600 guns purchased in Virginia were used in crimes in other states.

"The fact that Virginia is a source state for illegal guns is not something we should be proud of," said Herring.

A major source of illegal guns is stolen weapons. Unlike other states, Maryland does have a law addressing those thefts.

"The Firearm Safety Act of 2013 requires that lost or stolen guns be reported promptly," said Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh.

That wasn't the case for the gun WJZ tracked.

"It was never reported stolen. It was never reported missing. It just miraculously appeared in Baltimore and took two lives," said Lt. Moses.

The three states were short on specifics about how to control the movement of illegal guns, but say they will coordinate all strategies going forward.

Maryland's Attorney General says the state's tougher gun laws have denied weapons to 600 applicants.