The way it is now, people think their 2nd Amendment rights permit them to buy guns and do anything they want with them. Even the ones who understand that it's wrong to buy a gun for a disqualified person, feel they can get away with it.A woman who helped her mentally-unstable boyfriend obtain a gun that he later used to kill a Clark County deputy sheriff pleaded guilty this morning to two felonies.
Maria Blessing, 56, pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and complicity to having weapons under disability. Clark County Common Pleas Judge Douglas M. Rastatter said he will sentence her on July 18. Under a plea agreement, the maximum sentence Blessing could receive is five years, said Clark County Prosecutor Andy Wilson.
Blessing had been, for at least 20 years, the live-in girlfriend of Michael Ferryman.
Ferryman, who had a history of mental illness and had once been found criminally insane and spent time in mental hospitals, shot and killed Clark County Deputy Suzanne Waughtel Hopper and shot and wounded German Township police officer Jeremy Blum on Jan. 1.
Registration of newly bought firearms to individual licensed owners would largely put a stop to this. The new gun owner would have to renew that registration after three months and every year thereafter by presenting the documents and the gun itself to the police.
A law like that, properly enforced would cut down on straw purchasing by 87% in the first year. The second year it would be over 90%.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.
Just an FYI - Registration can not be used in a court of law to prove ownership. At least in the 9th circuit. That's precedent already.
ReplyDeleteSo if I 'give' someone else a handgun in CA that is registered to me, there is no risk of prosecution as the seller. Moreover as a buyer, if caught the police simply register on the spot without penalty.
Your scheme doesn’t change a thing about a case like this. One, she was caught and convicted under our current laws- and you get the bonus of her being barred from gun ownership for life. If you buy a gun, hand it to a prohibited person, and they go out and shoot someone with it- it is coming back to you. Every time. Two, she lives with her boyfriend that she provided the gun for. Under your scheme, she can buy him a gun, register it, reregister it after three months and every year thereafter until he kills someone. Then she goes to jail- just like we have now.
ReplyDelete"Registration of newly bought firearms to individual licensed owners would largely put a stop to this. "
ReplyDeleteNo it wouldn't.
TS, what do you mean it's coming back to you "every time?" I thought the FFL guy destroys the record of your purchase after 24 hours, so no one knows you're the lawful owner of the gun. You can do whatever you want with it.
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem. That's why we need a proper registration.
" I thought the FFL guy destroys the record of your purchase after 24 hours, so no one knows you're the lawful owner of the gun. You can do whatever you want with it."
ReplyDeleteWrong, you blindly accept way too much from liars like Bloomberg and VPC.
When you have a background check done by NICS, they check that you are not a prohibited person and are legal to purchase a gun. They do not have any idea what gun you are buying. Technically, you don't even have to have decided which particular gun you want when the NICS check is done, just that if it is a handgun or a long gun. Once the NICS check is completed by the FBI, they destroy that record within 24 hours by law.
You then complete your purchase. The seller has to record which particular gun you bough--defacto registration. Should that gun turn up in a crime, the ATF follows the link that leads to the purchaser. Contrary to Bloomie's bullshit, Tiahrdt does not stop law enforcement from tracing guns used in crimes at all.
No Mike, the government has to destroy its NICS records within 24 hr (to not keep a central registry). The FFL is required by law to keep the records for tracing purposes for I believe 20 years. You don’t know how this stuff works by now? But you are going to keep asking for more regulation?
ReplyDeleteTS raises the eternal Gunloon Paradox™:
ReplyDeleteGunloons need guns to defend themselves from the Evillll Gubbermint Tyranny. But Gunloons believe the same Evillll Gubbermint destroys NICS records.
This is a corollary to the axiom that Godzilla will fight according to Marquis of Queensbury rules.
" But Gunloons believe the same Evillll Gubbermint destroys NICS records."
ReplyDeleteOnly you believe that.
FWM and TS, It is terribly embarrassing that, as TS said, I still don't know how this stuff works. Of course the FFL guy is not required to destroy the records. He's the one who conveniently loses them or writes guns off to theft, or in those rare cases when he is questioned, just shrugs his shoulders and says, "uh, I donno nuttin." The government is the one who has to destroy the records, ensuring that, as I said, there are no USEFUL records after 24 hours.
ReplyDeleteMikeB: “The government is the one who has to destroy the records, ensuring that, as I said, there are no USEFUL records after 24 hours.”
ReplyDeleteBaloney. When you post about some gun runner who gets caught buying guns from NC and smuggling them to the UK, how do you think he got busted?