Tracing brings into sharp relief the fact that virtually all crime guns are first sold as new weapons by a licensed dealer to someone who cleared a background check. The criminal demand for weapons - especially new ones that cannot be tied to previous crimes - puts dealers at the front line of crime prevention.The folks at Realco, always compliant and cooperative with investigators, do what they all do, shrug their shoulders and claim powerlessness. The truth is there's a lot more they could do.
One ATF study found that about half the guns in trafficking cases started as "straw purchases" from licensed dealers.
But, since they won't, eventually we'll have to come to our senses and devise another plan.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
> The agency still has the same number of agents it had three decades ago.
ReplyDeleteMisleading, implying a flat history, when in fact the agency employs 27% more than ten years ago, with a budget 107% higher.
> 1,000 sold, analysis shows, police later recovered 131
> 1,000 it sold, police later recovered 41.
> 1,000 sold, police have recovered 28
> 1,000 guns sold, police recovered eight.
So, what's this about a famous 10%? Should it be a famous 0.01%?
> Cathy R. Anderson, ... she buy a gun for him. ..., signing a form saying she was buying the gun for herself.
> ...they opened a straw-purchase investigation to track down Dixon and the gun. Nine days later, he murdered his sister's boyfriend.
> He was arrested nine days after that in Virginia. Anderson cooperated with prosecutors, who chose not to charge her. Dixon is serving a 60-year sentence.
Hmm... let the straw purchasor off the hook, but throw the book at the store owner... yah, that'll work. Wasn't there some gun rights org. that advocated "enforcing the laws already on the books" instead of just adding more unenforced laws?
Or we could just arrest straw purchasers. There was one grazing with that cow in Chicago just yesterday.
ReplyDelete