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Article published Sep 2, 2003
Gun
cases increase in South Carolina
The Associated
Press
The number of gun cases referred to federal prosecutors in
South Carolina has increased from a few dozen five years ago to several
hundred.
Cases handled by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives resulted in 116 convictions, twice as many as in
1998.
"When someone with multiple violent convictions is sentenced to a
substantial amount of time in federal prison, the community has to be safer,"
said Strom Thurmond Jr., the U.S. attorney for South Carolina.
Pat
Dumais, agent in charge for the ATF offices in Columbia and Florence, has eight
agents in Columbia, up from four when he took the job four years
ago.
There also are offices in Charleston and Greenville.
The
majority of South Carolina's manpower goes for gun cases, Dumais said. But
agents to focus on arms trafficking and explosives cases, as well, he
said.
The result is that about 30 ATF agents in South Carolina referred
426 cases to Thurmond's office last year. That compares with 78 cases in
1998.
"The system we have in place is capturing a lot of them," Dumais
said.
Information from: The State