CLEVELAND -- With a recent string of fatal shootings in Cleveland, Mayor Frank Jackson is pointing the finger toward Columbus, saying state lawmakers are partly at fault.

The latest statistics released by the city show that a growing number of guns confiscated by police were taken from the hands of suspects under age 21, and now city leaders are demanding a change in the state gun law, reported NewsChannel5's Joe Pagonakis.

The evidence room at the Cleveland Police Department is overflowing with more than 19,000 weapons confiscated during a growing number of arrests.

Cleveland safety director Martin Flask blames a weak state law enacted last year, prohibiting major cities like Cleveland from using its own laws to control gun traffic.

In 2006, Cleveland police confiscated 1,173 guns, 1,045 of them hand guns, a 10 percent increase from the year before.

Of those guns, 22 percent were taken from suspects ages 18 to 21, and 9 percent were in the hands of juveniles.

Those against Jackson's proposal to change state law said more police officers are the best way to get guns off the streets.