Crime-ridden U.S. Cities Differ On Ways To Fight Gun Violence

The most horrifying experience a citizen can have is to stare down the barrel of a gun held by a violent criminal.

But under President Obama, federal prosecutors in two of the nation’s most crime-ridden cities have taken vastly different paths to address the threat.

In the Southern District of Alabama, U.S. Attorney Kenyen Brown has been working with agents at the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local law enforcement officials to relentlessly lock up known bad guys for a minimum of five years on federal arms charges.

The Southern District — which includes Mobile, Alabama, a city with one of the highest crime rates per capita in the country — has pursued the most federal weapons prosecutions this year, according to prosecution data analyzed by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Under Mr. Brown’s leadership, the jurisdiction is prosecuting 24 percent more cases than last year and has increased prosecutions 69 percent in the last five years. In 2008, the year before the effort started, there were 42 homicides in his district. Last year, there were 27, Mr. Brown said.

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