As he sold four handguns in a South Side parking lot last year, Levaine Tanksley boasted to his customer that there were plenty more illicit weapons available, investigators say.
"Twenty-five more in four hours," Tanksley told his customer, who was secretly working for law enforcement and recording the conversation. "Give me $5,000 and you can put your order in then. I'll get you whatever, give me a list."
As Tanksley, who police say has ties to a Chicago street gang, made his sales pitch, David Lewisbey was stocking up on more weapons at a gun show 40 miles away in Crown Point, Ind., one of several trips he made across the state border and back in little more than a day, according to federal authorities. Five hours later, Lewisbey, an unlikely gun trafficker then enrolled in college, was back in Chicago as Tanksley made good on his promise and sold the informant nine more guns, authorities allege.
A federal indictment charges the two with illegally selling 43 firearms to the government informant in just under 26 hours, a volume made possible by gun shows and less restrictive state laws in Indiana, by far the No. 1 source of out-of-state guns used in crimes in Cook County. Private gun sales in Indiana don't require background checks, a waiting period or even a record of the transaction.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Where Chicago Gets Its Guns
The Chicago Tribune via commenter nickxdanger
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Good for Indiana. The key point here is that whenever something is prohibited, someone will find a way to provide it.
ReplyDeleteLet the record show that Gunsuck Greg, like all NRA gunsucks, is 100% in favor of criminals running guns. The NRA is a criminal-promotion organization, and it's members make millions from gun running.
DeleteThe one who is referred to as nickxdanger:
DeleteWhat exactly is your point? Why do you insist on responding with a simian display of dogmatism, and encourage someone who can scarcely maintain a cordial discussion? Your comments serve no purpose other than to bastardize your cause and trivialize a national issue of deadly importance.Such depravity is only paralleled by the drunken rants of demmocommie and the soundbite parrot that calls itself "dog gone". At least the other trolls (the various incarnations of E.N. and the reoccurring Mall Ninja) manage to ply their trade with some value of entertainment. Either you stop with the silly ad hominems, or you find a different forum, that is more suitable to the rantings of a per-adolecent brat such as yourself.
Also, it would be helpful if you would be kind enough to post in English. To my knowledge there is no such word as "gunsuck" in this language.
Sorry Ian but you don't get a say in who comments here. I kinda like Nick's style.
DeleteMikeb, you liked Democommie's ranting as well. Perhaps you should think about your taste.
DeleteI think you're the number one commenter of all time on my blog. That should count for something.
DeleteYou're eclectic. I'll give you that.
DeleteYou moronic gunsucks are always talking about Chicago's gun ban failing. You are too stupid to understand the problem, which I have mentioned several times. The problem is that Chicago is surrounded by gunsuck criminals who run guns. The NRA protects gun runners by refusing to have background checks to stop the gun show loophole, by refusing to register guns, and by allowing criminals to buy multiple guns at one time. Gunsucks are idiots, of course.
ReplyDeletenickxdanger,
DeleteIf we don't trust dangerous, violent criminals with guns on the streets after they are out of prison, why do we trust them with knives, gasoline and matches, cars, baseball bats, and their fists on the streets?
Stop letting dangerous, violent criminals out of prison and we won't need background checks. Come to think of it, that would also decrease the number of good citizens who felt the need to carry guns for personal defense when out in public.
1. You claim that we're idiots. But then, none of your efforts stop us from doing what we want. If we're idiots, what does that make you?
Delete2. Are you incapable of understanding that smuggling also crosses national borders? When one route gets blocked, another opens.
3. But do keep believing that we're stupid. That way, you'll continue to propose silly ideas that won't work, thinking that we won't notice your true intentions.
Keep it up, nickdanger and I will begin to argue with the other side. Besides Mikeb, every pro-gun-control commenter is in desperate need of psychiatric help.
DeleteYou would do your (worthy) cause well to stop your unintelligible rantings altogether. But, if you feel compelled to comment on a civilized forum such as this, I do beseech you with a few urgent recommendations:
A. Before posting, (or make any statement for that matter) ask yourself "What would a reasonable and intelligent person do if they where in my position?"
B. Listen to your betters. However silly he may sound, Greg does know a thing or two. They don't let you teach English to those who should have learned it already for nothing.
C. Use words that are within the lexicon of the English language. The term "gunsuck" exists only in your pre-adolecent mind.
D. Whatever pills that your nurse gives you, take them.
E. Read (or learn how to). Do your homework. Do research on a topic before you make grandiose claims. You just might find more respect for the opinions of others when you can appreciate the effort that they undertook to form such opinions. Many who frequent this blog are attorneys or have been involved in law enforcement, or are/where an employee of some State agency, which would be affected by new arms regulations. You have made clear the fact that you are a very belligerent nobody.
This story illustrates two very important truths:
ReplyDelete(1) Laws do not stop criminals from doing what they want.
(2) Criminals will always find a way to get what they want.
Even if someone waived a magic wand and made all guns disappear overnight, criminals would be well armed with firearms again within months. Whether they import (smuggle) them or make them locally, criminals will get them.
Let's keep violent criminals in prison rather than disarming citizens and forcing them to face violent criminals without the means to defend themselves. Which is worse? Keeping a violent criminal in prison or helping a violent criminal successfully rape my daughter?
Let the record show that nickxdanger, like all citizen disarmament advocates, is 100% if favor of violent criminals running loose on the streets and being able to rape and brutalize our wives and daughters without fear.
ReplyDeleteA college student can illegally run guns across state lines, but it would be impossible for experienced drug cartels to use their established smuggling lines to bring in guns because national borders are magical!
ReplyDelete