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City ranks 2nd in gun indictments
YOUNGSTOWN
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio has placed Youngstown second in Ohio in the number of firearms indictments last year.
Of the 166 firearms indictments filed last year through Project Safe Neighborhood, 46 came from Youngstown, according to data released Monday.
The high number is attributed to the city’s Violence, Gun Reduction Interdiction Program, or V-GRIP, which is under the umbrella of Project Safe Neighborhood, said Michael Tobin, spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.
The majority of the indictments, 142, involved a prohibited person, in most cases a felon, in possession of a firearm, he said.
“There are laws on the books that people convicted of felonies aren’t allowed to have firearms, and these cases demonstrate that we’re enforcing those laws,” Tobin said.
Broken down by geography in the district, the most indictments filed came out of the Cleveland office with 69, followed by Youngstown with 46, Akron with 33 and Toledo with 18, according to a news release.
V-GRIP began in July and targeted gun crimes in the Mahoning Valley. More than 150 firearms were seized and 20 people indicted in federal court, with others facing charges in state court, Tobin said
The average sentence thus far for those who have been found guilty in federal court has been 44 months in prison. The number of firearms indictments in 2010 was up from 156 in 2009, but down from a peak of 220 in 2005, the news release stated.
“This office places a high priority on keeping firearms out of the hands of those who are forbidden by law from obtaining them,” said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach.