The 'Turn To Tara' team presents the findings of its three-year investigation into gun violence across the tri-state.

A first-of-its-kind survey of convicted killers takes the team on a journey to some of America's toughest and most notorious prisons to search for solutions to the crisis from an unlikely group of experts.

SEE THE SURVEY RESULTS: Survey Results

In order to find out how bad the problem was, our senior investigative reporter Tara Rosenblum contacted the Department of Corrections to greenlight something it had never approved before - the creation of a survey including every prisoner convicted of gun-related murders in the area.

What resulted was a database that provides an eye-opening glimpse of what's really happening in our neighborhoods.

Despite some of the strictest gun laws in the country, guns are plentiful and easy to get in the tri-state.

Most of the guns used in the murders were either given to the killers from a friend or family member or were bought on the street. Just two respondents in the survey bought the guns legally.

Of those who illegally purchased guns, the average price was around $500. The cheapest weapon cost $20. The most expensive one was a TEC-9 for $1,500.

A total of 89% of the guns used were handguns, followed by shotguns. One inmate used a hunting-style rifle: a 30-30 Winchester.

One out of five prisoners said it was important to them whether the gun had been used in a previous crime.

One of the most important questions asked was what they thought could be done to stop gun violence?

The survey asked 500 inmates 22 questions about their gun usage. A total of 101 of them responded.

Out of the 101, the team spoke to a dozen to give the numbers more context, including David Laffer, Ayman Marji and Rasheed Rice - murderers who have had decades to reflect on why they chose to pull the trigger.

David Laffer is the man responsible for the most gruesome crime scene in Long Island history. He is serving five life sentences without the possibility of parole for the 2011 Medford pharmacy killings of Raymond Ferguson, Jennifer Mejia, Bryon Sheffield and Jamie Taccetta.

"Pretty much the day before [the murders], I realized there were no more doctors to go to, no more prescriptions to fill. At that point, I said, 'All right - rob a pharmacy,'" he said. "When I was arrested - I'm 6 feet tall - and I was arrested at 122 pounds."

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Ayman Marji went from a popular star football player to the killer of a man in a turf war.

Marji was only 23 when he was sentenced to 20 years to life for killing 26-year-old Omar Torres Colon just a week before Christmas along Yonkers Avenue in 2004.

"I made a horrible decision," he says. "I just knew that everything I wanted to do, accomplish for myself at the time was out the window," he says.

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Rice was a Bronx High School dropout turned drug dealer with a traumatic upbringing: his father was murdered, his mother overdosed on heroin and he was orphaned at the age of 11.

"I had to find a way to take care of myself," he says. "Friends introduced me to friends who were drug dealers, [they] took a liking to me, knew I was down and out and [I] became a drug dealer."

"When you get money, you feel like you are somebody, you have to protect your little turf, your little territory. It becomes synonymous with our life: drugs, guns, violence," he says.

That violence escalated to murder on the night of March 19, 1992 when Rice says a rival dealer encroached on his turf.

"One thing led to another and by the time I was 18, I was locked up now for 37 years to life," he says. "A bad situation."

Solutions to end gun violence in our survey ran the gamut of full unrestricted carry to bring back stop and frisk.

The most common response was more education and intervention for young people - particularly young men.

Marji agrees and says the answer has less to do with changing gun laws and more to do with changing attitudes.

"The majority of these kids that are committing these gun violence acts never had a positive male role in their household, so who do these kids turn to for a role model? The local gang members on the street corners, drug dealers, individuals who carry guns," he says.

He suggests a mandatory class in school to teach kids more independent thinking.

"Teach them how to become leaders instead of followers. Teach them the importance of being accountable and being responsible," he says.

Laffer says he believes gun violence is spiking because too many illegal guns are in the hands of people who don't care how they use them.

He says he believes it's more of a federal issue.

"ATF, FBI - they really need to start cracking down on the illegal transfer of guns from states that have very lax laws," he says. "It's the ATF that really has to track where all the weapons are coming from, getting into the wrong hands."

Rice suggests positive influences, like a mentorship program, could give kids another outlet to show them that gun violence is not the answer.

"You're gonna realize years from now, when you are sitting in prison with 40, 50 years to life, you made a mistake," he says. That life you thought you was living is not the life you should have been living."