Our office announced “Operation Young Guns” at a press conference in December 2022 alongside some of our partners in the initiative – the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, Volusia Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

State Attorney R.J. Larizza led the launch of the operation in May 2022 to address the increase in violent gun crime among juveniles and young adults.

“The goal of our operation is not just cooperation, because we have great cooperation within the 7th Circuit, but to also attack this problem and get these folks off the street that are committing these violent crimes,” State Attorney Larizza said in his address.

Juveniles and young adults up to the age of 25 who are committing violent gun crimes in the circuit are facing adult charges and our office is asking for harsher sentences.

As of the end of 2023, our office has filed 451 “Young Guns” cases circuitwide, which does not include the many more cases that came before or have not yet been designated/filed on. 487 different defendants have been charged with a total of 1,446 counts. The charges include First-Degree Murder (Firearm), Attempted Second-Degree Murder (Firearm), Kidnapping, Burglary While Armed, Aggravated Assault and more.

“This is not just a 7th Circuit problem or not just a state of Florida problem,” Larizza explained. “This is a national problem and national epidemic of gun violence with young people stealing guns, using guns and committing terrible crimes, violent crimes.”

To help further our efforts, law enforcement agencies in the 7th Judicial Circuit are also tracking “community firearms” – guns that are stolen and traded, sold and used over and over again to commit violent crimes.

They began utilizing National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) on a bigger scale – through personal use of a NIBIN trailer that is passed around from county to county. The ATF-administered crime gun intelligence tool is designed to reveal links between otherwise unrelated shootings across multiple jurisdictions. NIBIN captures and analyzes digital imagery of expended shell casings and bullets to generate leads in gun-related investigations.

NIBIN has been around, but our partnership with ATF in “Operation Young Guns” is a pilot program and a first of its kind in the State of Florida.

The hope is that utilizing the technology on a bigger scale will eventually lead to more arrests and convictions in the 7th Judicial Circuit.

For more information on “Operation Young Guns”, you can watch the full press conference below.