CHICAGO (AP) — Authorities from two high-crime regions of Illinois detailed some out-of-state sources responsible for the illegal flow of guns and the problems with prosecuting such crimes during Wednesday’s first meeting of a legislative group aimed at studying the issue.

Illinois State Police officials told lawmakers that most of the problem isn’t large-scale trafficking operations, but so-called individual straw purchasers. Those people — like a family member or girlfriend — buy guns legally and provide them to criminals and others who are barred from carrying them. In one recent Chicago-area criminal investigation, hundreds of guns came from Mississippi, where gun laws are more lax, officials said. Mississippi and neighboring Indiana are among the biggest suppliers of illegal guns in the Chicago area.