As shootings rise, police try to stem influx of guns

(Correction: Because of a reporting error, a Page 1 story in yesterday's Globe about an increase in gun seizures and shootings in Boston misstated the federal prison sentence for a convicted firearms trafficker. Mack A. Fludd, 35, received 24 years for bringing 21 guns to Boston illegally.)

Boston police officials say there are more guns on city streets than at any time in at least six years, and they are stepping up efforts to stem the flow of the weapons, many of which they believe are being brought illegally into Massachusetts from out of state.

Through Aug. 23 this year, police seized 490 guns, compared with 380 in the same period last year and 294 in 2001. There has also been an 11 percent jump in the number of shootings in the city from last August to this, according to figures obtained by the Globe.

''The increase in firearms transcends all other issues," said Boston Police Superintendent Robert Dunford. ''Now, we're trying to focus on where the guns are coming from and who's supplying them."

The enhanced strategy will include a special investigations unit, which has been focusing on drugs but will now work with federal authorities to pay new attention to illegal gun trafficking. Dunford said that 10 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are joining the police department's gang and intelligence units in the coming weeks. That tactic reprises one from the 1990s, when police also used federal prosecutions of gun traffickers to help combat a surge in homicides and shootings.

Police have also beefed up community policing -- another key piece of the city's approach during the 1990s -- with a new bicycle unit of officers who ride into the city's hardest hit neighborhoods and parks every night. They have added a new Tactical Intelligence Center to track and analyze where gun crimes occur and trace guns used in specific crimes. And they have begun holding twice-monthly ''street violence suppression" meetings where officials from local and state agencies meet to specifically target gun crimes.

''We are utilizing the strategies that worked effectively in the past, plus some additional strategies," Dunford said. He declined to elaborate on the new strategies because he said he doesn't want to alert criminals to police capabilities.

David Hemenway, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and the author of ''Private Guns, Public Health," a 2004 book about the impact of guns on society, said criminals tend to arm themselves as others become armed, meaning that it is critical to make guns less accessible. The increase in shootings suggests that police officials are correct to conclude Boston is facing a growing gun problem, he said.

''If they haven't changed their policing procedures much, this is a big change," Hemenway said. ''Gun crime tends to go in waves, so you really have to be concerned. . . . This is not good news for Boston."

Some neighborhoods have been particularly hard hit by gun violence this year. In the police district that covers a large section of Dorchester, shootings have jumped to 41 through Aug. 23 from 28 over the same period last year. In the police district covering Jamaica Plain, shootings have more than doubled from seven last year to 17 this year.

Overall, shootings citywide increased to 194 by Aug. 23 from 175 last year. Nonfatal shootings are up from 141 to 168.

Residents across the city say they are worried by the rise in gun violence.

Carlos French, a 36-year-old real estate agent living in the South End, organized a community meeting last week because he said the neighborhood has become like ''the wild West."

French said more than 200 people came to the town hall meeting with the district police captain. The following night, a Friday, about 30 people joined French for a ''symbolic walk through the neighborhood to let folks know that citizens are going to start being more aware of their surroundings and do something about it."

On one recent Friday night, French said 19 bullets were discharged from three guns during a shootout behind his home between two rival groups of youths from area housing developments. ''One pierced our air conditioner, which is right in our kitchen," he said. ''If the A/C wasn't there and since it was 10:50 at night . . . it could have hit us."

French, who lives with his partner and his 73-year-old mother, said he is considering installing bulletproof glass in his back windows. He praised the police for responding to the shooting by increasing police presence in the area, but said he still feels helpless.

''These kids think [guns] are toys," French said. ''It's almost a rite of passage, like getting your driver's license."

The arrest last week of a 12-year-old boy in the South End on gun charges attracted widespread attention, but Dunford said officers also recently arrested four 13- and 14-year-olds in Mattapan in possession of a gun.

''It's not an anomaly," he said.

Authorities said many guns appear to be stolen weapons from other states that are brought to Massachusetts, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. They also say that many of the weapons they are able to trace were sold in other states, often Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Other guns are impossible to track because criminals have obliterated their serial numbers.

A Boston man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison by a South Carolina judge last week for bringing guns here illegally. Mack A. Fludd Jr., 35, went to South Carolina to obtain 21 guns, which he then resold in Boston after filing off their serial numbers. Four of the 21 guns have been recovered by Boston police.

In the joint task force with Boston police, federal agents will make gun arrests, interview suspects in Boston police custody, and use undercover officers to identify and target gun traffickers, said Dan Kumor, assistant special agent in charge of the ATF's Boston office.

''We think this is going to make us a lot more successful in addressing gun crimes here in Boston," Kumor said. ''Boston is dedicating their people to work specifically gun crime [and] gun trafficking. It's just more of a focused effort."