Corzine announces gun-tracking plan

EWING, N.J. - New Jersey will step up its tracing of illegal firearms in what Gov. Corzine today called a first-in-the-nation agreement to share a federal gun database.

Joined by state and federal officials at a news conference at state police headquarters, Corzine said the state would now have real-time electronic access to a database maintained by the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that lists a gun's first purchaser, date of sale and the retailer from which it was purchased.

The information is compiled from local police records of gun purchases, but in the past only ATF and the department that provided the information have been able to access it.

Corzine said the partnership "will allow us to pursue, arrest and prosecute the purchasers and sellers of illegal guns that have plagued our streets and communities for far too long."

Only 30 percent of local departments nationwide provide firearm information to the database. Attorney General Anne Milgram today said she was directing all New Jersey departments to forward tracing information, which will go into a database shared by all law enforcement departments.