BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) — Many West Virginians enjoy a peaceful existence, free from the violent crimes that plague big cities.

But police and activists say West Virginia’s few, if any, firearm restrictions can attract profit-minded inner-city drug dealers who bring their narcotics and inner-city violence with them.

Last Wednesday, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence released its 2008 State Scorecards, rating each state on what campaign representatives say was the strength of the states’ gun laws.

West Virginia scored four points out of a possible 100, and it tied with four other states for having the second-weakest gun laws in the nation, according to the campaign. Only three other states, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma, are believed to have weaker laws.

Detective Lt. Gant Montgomery, field supervisor of the Beckley Police Department’s Narcotics Enforcement Division, emphasized he has no problem with law-abiding citizens owning rifles for hunting or handguns for defending themselves. However, assault weapons, and convicted felons and drug dealers having any kind of firearms, present a much different and more dangerous situation.

Montgomery pointed to Thomas Leftwich, who was convicted last year of killing Cpl. Chuck Smith. Smith was a fellow narcotics detective who Montgomery called his brother.

During Leftwich’s trial, police testified they found 19 weapons and a bullet-ridden target of a police officer in the Leftwich residence.

“That is the worst, most horrible, example I have ever experienced,” he said. “Here was a kid who had a hatred for law enforcement and he killed a policeman. This is why I have such strong feelings.

“This is the state I’m from and that I grew up in. I love West Virginia. There’s been many problems like with overdoses and now with guns. It’s sad. This is a beautiful state with good people, and so much to offer.”

Paul Cross, resident agent-in-charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Charleston field office, declined to specifically comment on the state’s gun laws. However, he explained what often attracts drug dealers from big cities to West Virginia and other southern states. In this region, guns are more plentiful.

Cross explained the illegal drug and firearms trades are simply based on supply and demand, plus profit margins. Drug dealers from major cities will stock up on narcotics at home, where they are plentiful and cheaper. Then they will bring the drugs to a state like West Virginia, where narcotics supplies are lower, and the drugs sell for a higher price.

While in West Virginia, these dealers will then purchase guns sometimes in bulk “straw” purchases, Cross said. Guns are in higher supply in West Virginia and other southern states and sell at cheaper prices. They will then take the guns back to the large cities where they’re in smaller supply. There, the profit margin for firearms is much higher.

“You have cheap guns here and cheap drugs up there,” he said. “It’s supply and demand just like the market. It’s a business to (the drug dealers). A lot of them are violent, unsavory characters. They’re businessmen. That’s what they are. Instead of selling insurance or doing any kind of other job, they do this.”

The out-of-state criminals who come here to purchase guns will often visit gun shows and flea markets, search trading papers or even break into homes, Cross said. Sometimes they will get a person, often a female, who is not a convicted felon to buy from a licensed dealer. These people are often substance abusers who get drugs in return for their favors.

The ATF has dealt with gun trade suspects in West Virginia who have come from Detroit, Columbus, New York, and Philadelphia, he said. Pittsburgh suspects have been found as far south as Logan.

Some of the out-of-state dealers seek assault weapons like AK-47s, but they usually want handguns, Cross said.

“They usually want old, cheap Saturday night specials,” he said. “You can make as much money on a cheap gun as an expensive one, so why go with an expensive one?

“You can buy a gun here for a hundred dollars, then sell it for three, four or five hundred dollars up there,” he said.

The inner-city drug dealers, Cross said, are extremely dangerous and bring a “whole different crime element” to West Virginia. While other cities have remained relatively tame, he noted, Huntington has seen a major spike in violent crime.

“Huntington, it’s a mess over there,” he said. “This can cause the violent crime rate to go up. They’ll break into houses and steal. It makes the drug problem worse.”

In Cross’ estimation, the vast majority of gun owners are law-abiding citizens who are no danger to others.

“It’s just that there’s one percent of them who are going crazy, and they’re a problem,” he said.

West Virginia has not closed the “gun show loophole,” according to the Brady Campaign. No criminal background checks are done on people buying firearms at gun shows, if the guns are being sold by private individuals or gun collectors. And the shows operate on a “no questions asked” basis.

These shows, according to the campaign, make it easy for criminals and even juveniles to buy as many guns as they want, including assault weapons. No records are required to be kept on gun show sales, making it almost impossible for police to trace the weapons.

West Virginia also has no restrictions on the sale or possession of military-style assault weapons, according to the Brady Campaign. Former President George W. Bush allowed a federal assault weapons ban to expire in 2004.

Montgomery said high-powered and dangerous assault rifles have only one purpose killing. He believes they shouldn’t be on the streets.

“In my opinion, dangerous weapons like assault rifles, Tech 9s ... There’s no other purpose for them other than just killing people,” he said. “Hunting rifles are one thing. But these have no other purpose than to just kill people.

“The fact is that West Virginia has a big hunting population. But what are you going to use? Are you going to use an AK-47 or another type of assault rifle to go hunting? The answer is no. I’m all about a law-abiding citizen’s right to possess a firearm. But I draw a line at a citizen being allowed to possess something like these (assault weapons).”

With assault weapons on the streets, Montgomery said, police can find themselves outgunned by criminals. He pointed to the 1997 North Hollywood shoot-out in California where police, armed with only pistols or pump-action shotguns, encountered two bank robbery suspects with three Romanian AIM rifles, a modified HK91, three handguns, an AR-15 and heavy body armor. Ten police officers and seven civilians were injured before the two suspects were killed.

“This changed law enforcement,” Montgomery said. “Law enforcement officers were having to go to pawn shops so they could have firepower that matched the suspects’. When you have suspects carrying high-powered firearms, law enforcement is undergunned. These situations will end with tragedy.

“We have executed numerous search warrants and found suspects with more powerful firearms than the ones we possess. That’s dangerous when you don’t know what you’re running into. This can happen in any city. It’s not just in West Virginia, but all over the place.”

Beckley Police Chief Tim Deems said the department has kept high-powered weapons in stock for as long as he can recall. That’s done to make sure officers who encounter such firepower are not outmatched. Law enforcement retained the legal right to keep such weapons when the 1994 federal ban was in effect, as long as the guns were owned by agencies and only used for law enforcement purposes.

Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign, called national disagreement over gun issues “explosive” and said the battle was namely a cultural one between urban and rural residents. Instead of working to hammer out a compromise, people on both sides will often vilify one another.

“In West Virginia, when some people hear that you want to toughen gun laws, they believe someone wants to take away hunting rifles or any guns away from law-abiding citizens.

“Likewise, you have some people who own firearms because they live 30 miles from the nearest police station. People in the cities need to listen to them. ... I’m very lucky to have a weekend house on the Maryland eastern shore. It’s a very rural area. I can understand that the need is not imaginary it’s real. It’s a need. But people in D.C. can’t imagine that.

“Dialogue and public attention is very, very important. It’s like the abortion issue. Once people find out they disagree, they tend to not keep talking or not put aside their differences.

“We can solve this problem of trafficking and gun violence without taking the rights of law-abiding citizens who want guns for self-defense and hunting. People just need to trust each other just a little more.”

States with high or low Brady Campaign rankings may not exactly translate into lower crime numbers. For example, California received the highest marks. From January through June 2008, 196 murders were reported in Los Angeles, alone, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. No data was available for West Virginia.

However, Hamm said those who commit crimes in cities with strict gun laws, like Washington, D.C., could be using firearms trafficked from states with weaker laws.

The issue is so explosive, Hamm said, that no politician in West Virginia would probably dare suggesting any type of firearm restrictions.

“Politicians get nervous about this issue,” he said. “Opposition is strong to strengthening gun laws. You’ll have people call and say they’ll support your opponent or get you out of office. They may privately tell you they’re in favor of this, privately, but they won’t publicly because they’re afraid they’ll be looking for work.”

Hamm believes that a “one handgun per month” proposal could help. Trafficking would be less economical if criminals could only get their hands upon one gun instead of an arsenal during a trip from New York to West Virginia. A possible solution to the gun show loophole is having the private sellers go to the federally licensed dealers for the background checks before making their sales final.

Stronger gun laws, Hamm said, will only help West Virginia because it will be less attractive to drug-selling gun traffickers.

“West Virginians will benefit from strengthened gun laws because there will be less crack cocaine coming in,” he said. “You aren’t going to have people coming into the state with a trunk full of dangerous drugs when they’re buying guns. Not only will toughening the gun laws make New Yorkers safer, it will also make West Virginians’ own children safer.

“New York has the drugs. West Virginia has the guns. Some want to make a profit.”