That was the point, not that the crime-fighters made it as strongly as I just did.

In politics, the polite thing to say is that gun violence is a regional crisis transcending state lines.

That's because 75 percent of all guns used in crimes in New Jersey come from out of state. Big surprise, the top source of those weapons of mass destruction is Pennsylvania.

The problem facing New Jersey, Acting Camden County Prosecutor Joshua Ottenberg noted at the chilly news conference, is leaders in certain other states not realizing that "the decisions they make" - or avoid making - "affect people everywhere."

Translation: Garden State residents should be proud that, where they live, buying a single gun legally takes weeks, illegal possession automatically gets you prison time, and failing to report a lost or stolen weapon is a crime. But as long as Pennsylvania refuses to pass similar measures, guns bought easily in bulk there will keep winding up at crime scenes elsewhere. And that's not neighborly.

The revolver was purchased legally in 1986 by a Philadelphian.

Twenty years later, Earl Bayard fired it, injuring DRPA Officer Matthew Gorman during a Camden traffic stop.

Bayard, a career criminal who couldn't legally buy a gun, was shot to death in the incident, so it's unclear how he got the weapon. Investigators aren't sure when or why the gun left its legal owner's hands.

What they do know? That in Pennsylvania, there is no law requiring a gun owner to report when a weapon is lost or stolen.

Pennsylvania House Bill 29 would change that, and of all the gun bills lingering in Harrisburg, it's the least controversial and makes the most sense.

"Lost-and-stolen is a no-brainer," said Joe Grace of CeasefirePA. "Ninety-six percent of Pennsylvanians support this."

And the other 4 percent? Perhaps they're the entrepreneurs who pay folks with clean records to purchase guns later resold to thugs on the streets.

If straw buyers had to tell police about every weapon they bought and "lost," they might think twice about the business ventures.

And that could cripple the black market pumping bullets from Pennsylvania guns into victims in New Jersey.

Had the lost-and-stolen provision come up, "I probably would have voted for that, too."

Harper knew that a CeasefirePA poll found a remarkable 100 percent support of the measure in her district. But her conversion was also influenced by a belief that law-abiding citizens wouldn't be burdened.

"My family owns guns for target shooting," she told me. "They're regarded as assets. Most people I know would want to report their gun lost or stolen."

Harper even sponsored her own take on the issue, a bill that would mandate gun-shop warnings to would-be straw buyers, like girlfriends recruited by boyfriends.

"I do think women sometimes don't realize that what the guy is asking them to do can get them into trouble," Harper said. "Maybe we can stop that."

Maybe, if any of the gun legislation on life support since late last year ever gets revived.

Grace, CeasefirePA's executive director, told me that passing lost-and-stolen this year is his group's priority.

"It's rational, it's reasonable, and it doesn't take away anybody's right to hunt."

And it just might save lives in multiple states.