This is absolutely useless without also requiring registration of guns. How else are the feds going to know if a straw buyer turns over the purchase to someone else?A Democratic Congressman has introduced legislation that would impose tough new penalties on people who lie when they buy guns.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Ca.) says the bill, the Straw Purchaser Penalty Enhancement Act, would give federal agents new tools to crack down on the flow of weapons across the Southwest border into Mexico.
Nowadays, many episodes where people lie about the true identity of the purchaser of guns, or engage in straw purchases, never get prosecuted at all, Schiff says in an interview with NPR.
"The penalties are so insufficient that prosecutors don't want to bring the cases and more than that you can't get sufficient cooperation when you indict them to roll them up and use their testimony against higher ups in the gun smuggling organization," he says.
A combination of licensing, registration AND stiffer penalties for straw purchasing would make a huge difference. But, unfortunately it's like the illegal drug business. There are ways to stop it, put the powerful interests, some who claim to want it stopped, oppose the very regulations that would do so. Same with the gun business. The NRA wants the fewest restrictions possible for their members and the gun manufacturers want to sell as much as possible. These people,as well as the individual gun-rights gun owner, are unscrupulous and self-centered. They don't care what's best for anyone but themselves, and even in that they're often mistaken.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Registration means a list of who has what. That makes taking guns away from good citizens much easier. Without massive Fourth Amendment violations, the government right now cannot take away all guns from our society. With a list, the goons could just send a letter demanding the turn in of named items. The same goes for licensing of purchases. We've compromised enough by accepting licensing for carry.
ReplyDeleteWhen you stop treating us gun owners like criminals, we'll be more willing to talk.
"This is absolutely useless without also requiring registration of guns."
ReplyDeleteSince there is no way you are going to get registration, does that mean you do not support this law? After all, why would you support a useless law?
NAw, anything which could stop criminals from getting their hands on guns is offensice to this crowd.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why they feel that way?
Do they have a personal interestin in seeing that criinlas, drug addicts, the insane, etc. are well armed?
It's because we know that this won't do much to disarm the people that you named. We see no purpose in passing a law just to claim to be doing something.
DeleteBullshit, Greg, you know no such thing.
DeleteDon't I? Are cocaine or heroin legal in the United States? Can a person buy either anyway? Do you seriously believe that while we can't keep drugs out, we could keep guns from crossing our borders?
Delete"This is absolutely useless without also requiring registration of guns"
ReplyDeleteHow so? The article says that the only reason that prosecutors aren't bringing the cases forward is because of the inconsequential penalties. That implies that they have evidence to bring forward cases. A string of high profile prosecutions would then act as a deterrent towards future straw purchasers. This is useless to you?
You're right. "Absolutely useless" is way too strong. I meant it would be much more effective with licensing and registration.
DeleteUseless is one characterization of your proposals. Distasteful is another. A violation of rights is a third. I can keep going. This is why we can't agree to anything. There is no limit to your obsession with gun control. If we gave ground on one point, you'd demand more without moving a step in our direction. No deals.
Delete