Cops fear state will dump gun database

Police are worried the General Assembly is on the verge of passing legislation to scrap a statewide gun database they use to identify suspects such as an 84-year-old Downstate man who allegedly supplied Chicago gang members with weapons.

Without the database containing 2.1 million gun transactions, investigators would not have been able to obtain a gunrunning charge last month against the man, Garnett L. Cochran of Herrin, said Chicago Police Sgt. John Kohles.

The case began on the West Side with the April 2004 traffic stop of Antonio Guzman, a 28-year-old sex offender and gang member with "Thuglife" tattooed on his left arm. snip

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, meanwhile, determined the 9mm FEG handgun was originally bought 166 days earlier by Cochran. A search of the Illinois State Police gun database showed Cochran used his firearm owner's identification card to buy weapons 22 times. Police contacted those dealers and learned Cochran bought 40 guns including the FEG.

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