Ismaaiyl Brinsley, The Brooklyn Cop Shooter - Where'd He Get the Gun

Ismaaiyl Brinsley

Al Jazeera

While authorities search for details in the shooting deaths of two Brooklyn police officers at the hands of Ismaaiyl Brinsley, just hours after he shot his ex-girlfriend in the stomach, they do know that Brinsley did not initially purchase the murder weapon.

Police say Brinsley used a semiautomatic Taurus handgun, bought in 1996 at a pawn shop in Atlanta by someone else, to kill the two officers before turning the gun on himself.

Authorities don’t yet know how the gun got into Brinsley’s hands. But federal law prohibits gun sales to convicted felons. Brinsley would have been barred from legally purchasing a firearm since he had already served two years in prison for firing a stolen gun in Georgia and had been arrested more than a dozen times, though mostly for petty crimes, according to The New York Times. 

But that Brinsley did not directly buy the murder weapon from a shop is not surprising, say criminologists.

Through something known as the “private sale loophole,” he could have purchased the firearm in the private market at a gun show or out of someone’s trunk. Private dealers don’t have to conduct background checks on prospective buyers the way licensed firearms dealers are required to do by federal law. Additionally, guns get stolen, are passed from person to person or bought by so-called “straw purchasers,” those who buy on behalf of felons.

On Armslist, The Craigslist For Guns, 1 in 30 Buyers Already Has A Criminal Record

Fast Company

Forget the so-called "gun-show loophole. To buy a gun without a background check, all you have to do is go online, where websites connect gun buyers and sellers in “private sales” exempt from scrutiny.

Gun control advocates have previously speculated that these kinds of markets are ripe for exploitation, but a new investigation from Mayors Against Illegal Guns provides the best evidence yet. Out of a sample of prospective buyers on Armslist.com, “the ‘Craigslist’ for guns,” one in 30 had a criminal record that would have prohibited them from buying a gun if they hadn't been exempt from the background check.

The report argues this narrow slice is actually a conservative estimate. It considered only criminal records in the buyer's jurisdiction and didn’t check other factors that can make purchasing a gun illegal, like serious mental illness or drug abuse. It also seems intuitively more likely that someone seeking to flout the law would remain anonymous or use the contact information of a friend. The fact that so many would choose instead to post identifying information online is what Bloomberg said most surprised him.

“They just must feel that there’s no enforcement, and there’s not going to be any enforcement,” he said. “And it’s a sad commentary.”

Conservative estimate is right.  The true number is probably 15 out of 30.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

The Scourge of Online Gun Sales

Bloomberg

It’s not difficult to grasp how a man with a history of gun arrests and mental instability obtained the necessary firepower to commit a massacre at the Washington Navy Yard earlier this week. Buying a gun, or even an arsenal, is exceptionally easy in the U.S.

Even so, there are some people who both fail to meet the minimal requirements for purchasing a gun from a licensed dealer and whose relevant personal details are known to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Since 1998, the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System has stopped more than 2 million attempted gun purchases by felons, domestic abusers, drug addicts, the mentally ill and other prohibited persons.

Those blocked from making legal purchases from gun dealers, however, have an alternative marketplace -- online. As a report released this week makes painfully clear, that marketplace is growing in both size and danger.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, cofounded by New York City Mayor and Bloomberg LP founder Michael Bloomberg, found 83,000 ads for guns on Armslist.com, a site devoted to firearm sales. The number of criminals seeking guns on the site -- federal law requires no background checks or questions of any kind for in-state, nondealer transactions -- would be astounding if it weren’t so predictable.

So when Radcliffe Haughton was prohibited from buying firearms, he naturally turned to Armslist, where he found a willing seller while avoiding a background check or any other kind of scrutiny. Haughton bought a .40-caliber semi-automatic Glock handgun. The next day, he drove to his estranged wife’s workplace and murdered her along with two co-workers. Four others were injured before Haughton turned the gun on himself.

This is the “gun-show loophole” in action. Armslist is precisely the kind of lawless marketplace that the National Rifle Association champions and that the U.S. Senate this year mobilized to protect by scuttling background-check legislation. With the growth of online markets, there’s never a need to wait for a gun show; tens of thousands of guns are on sale every hour of every day.

Study Finds Vast Online Marketplace for Guns without Background Checks

The Washington Post

The marketplace for firearms on the Internet, where buyers are not required to undergo background checks, is so vast that advocates for stricter regulations now consider online sales a greater threat than the gun-show loophole.

A new study by Third Way , a center-left think tank with close ties to the Obama administration, found that thousands of guns, including so-called assault weapons, are for sale online and that many prospective buyers were shopping online specifically to avoid background checks.

The study focused on Armslist.com — a popular classified site similar to Craigslist.org that facilitates private sales of firearms and ammunition based on location — and analyzed listings in 10 states where senators voted against a background-check compromise this spring.

“At this point, this is the biggest loophole in the background check system,” said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy and politics at Third Way, an organization that has been active in the gun-control movement for years.

Background checks — designed to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons, domestic violence perpetrators or the severely mentally ill — are mandatory for gun sales at retail stores, but not at gun shows or for private sales, such as between neighbors and family members or between individuals online.

The National Rifle Association and other gun rights supporters have advocated against expanding the background check system because they believe doing so would not stop society’s most dangerous people from procuring weapons and eventually would lead to even stricter gun regulations, including a federal registry.

The NRA, in a policy statement on its Web site, notes that most firearms sales online go through a federally licensed firearms dealer in the home state of the buyer. “The reality is that the Internet does not provide any legal opportunity to simply buy a firearm as if it were a pair of jeans,” the statement says.

More on the "40% Figure"

PokitiFact has changed its rating of this claim from "Mostly True" to "Half True."

Yet, in their description it still seems mostly true to me. Others agree.

"It’s a fairly stable market. That is to say, gun stores have had their part, police supply stores have had their part, and then there are the gun shows and private dealings about which we know very little," said Robert McCrie, of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "To be sure, there has been this bump up in gun purchases, which we know from reports from gun stores and the companies like Smith & Wesson. There’s the knowledge that the market has been more vigorous and probably that higher vigor has been reflected in gun shows and private sales in tandem."
His take: "The 40 percent seems about right."

and

Jay Corzine has attended and studies gun shows in Florida. The University of Central Florida professor says that based on his observation, no more than 15 to 20 percent of sales at gun shows happen without a background check. But when you add in other private sales -- neighbors selling to neighbors, ads in the paper, etc. -- the 40 percent figure is "probably accurate" and "a very good figure to use."

It seems to me that PolitiFact is demanding proof where none exists and based on that lack of proof is downgrading the claim.

One thing is clear in all the quotes in the article and all the references to the 40%, and that's the fact that everybody seems to understand that the 40% refers to ALL private sales, not those limited to gun shows.  Only the agenda-driven liars among the gun-rights extremists have a problem with this.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Senate Committee Approves Bill Requiring Background Checks

Yahoo News reports

A divided Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday endorsed President Barack Obama's call to require criminal background checks for all gun buyers, yet it remained uncertain if the measure would become law.

On a party-line vote of 10-8, the Democratic-led panel sent the measure to the full Senate, where it faces a possible procedural roadblock that could kill it.

Federally registered firearm dealers are now required to run background checks on buyers. But about 40 percent of sales are made by private dealers who do not have such an obligation.

Republicans in the committee lined up against the bill, arguing that private gun sales between family members and friends should be exempted from background checks.

They also oppose a requirement that private sellers keep a paper record of firearm transactions, voicing fears that could lead to gun registration and eventually even confiscation.

Senator Patrick Leahy on Background Checks

 Politico

Leahy acknowledged the deep ideological divide inside his panel, but also asserts that Judiciary “has done more legislation than just about any other committee” under his leadership.

Leahy said he will be pushing for an expansion of background checks on all gun sales, a proposal that appears to have bipartisan Senate support in the Senate and broader appeal to the American public in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shooting.

The Vermont Democrat, though, pointedly didn’t mention the assault weapons ban.
“I just don’t understand how anyone could be against universal background checks,” Leahy said in an interview. “We need to close the loopholes” from private gun sales or weapon purchases at gun shows.

To me this is the one issue that really shows the gun-rights advocates for what they are. We've heard all the excuses, from private citizens don't have access to the NICS system, to people should be allowed to do what they want with their property.  All of it's nonsense.

The fact is, gun rights fanatics care only about gun rights.  They don't care if guns will flow more easily into the criminal world or if more people will be killed as a result. Self-centered in the extreme, they care only for their own convenience and in never giving in an inch in the battle for their so-called rights.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Still Pretending to Not Understand What The Gun Show Loophole Is

The Washington Post

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said Sunday that the “gun show loophole” doesn’t exist, pushing back against gun control advocates’ call for background checks in all guns sales.

“You know, there actually isn’t the so-called ‘gun show loophole,’” Cruz, a gun-rights advocate, said on NBC News’s “Meet The Press.” “That doesn’t exist. Any licensed firearm dealer who sells at a gun show has to have a background check.  It’s a requirement that applies to every licensed firearm dealer. What it doesn’t apply to is personal sales one on one. And that’s true whether it’s at a gun show or not.”

President Obama unveiled a sweeping slate of gun control proposals last week, including a call for Congress to pass a law requiring universal background checks for gun sales, including those between private citizens that don’t involve licensed gun dealers, which are currently not subject to checks.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a leading gun control advocate, said on the same program that the proposal to require universal background checks “is the sweet spot in terms of actually making us safer and having a good chance of passing.”

If I were a gun-rights fanatic, I'd fight against this tooth and nail too. I might even pretend to not understand what the gun show loophole actually means and thereby render the discussion as tedious as possible.The alternative is to admit that once we have universal background checks, licensing and registration are right around the corner. Nothing short of a comprehensive and complete approach to gun control will have the desired effect.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Virginia Lawmakers Against the Gun Show Loophole

NBC reports

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Closing the Gun Show Loophole in Virginia

Local news reports

It’s a loophole in the law that should have been closed years ago. Virginia lawmakers will get another chance to make the state safer by closing the loophole and requiring the background check for buyers from private sellers. State Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax, has said she will introduce such a bill in the Assembly session that begins today.

Why is closing the loophole even important? Because the gun shows provide access to weapons for convicted felons and those with a history of mental illness. Further, the gun show loophole makes a mockery of the background check law that prohibits the sale of guns by licensed dealers to people who should not be buying guns.

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a national legal nonprofit that compiles information on gun laws and advocates for “smart gun laws,” has given Virginia regulations a “D.”

While everybody is focused on Feinstein's Assault Weapons Ban, many states are enacting sensible gun laws like this one.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Gun Show Loophole in Action

The Portland Press Herald

One of the biggest breaks in the case came when a forensic examination showed that the .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol that Daudoit Butsitsi used to murder Serge Mulongo on Feb. 10, 2010, was the gun that had been used to shoot Richardson a month earlier.

Butsitsi, who is serving a 38-year prison term, has refused to say where he got the gun.

Portland detectives worked with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to track down the manufacturer, the distributor and the gun shop that sold the gun.

Police hoped that by tracing the trail of ownership, they could get a lead on who Butsitsi got the gun from and who might have shot Richardson.

They found the legal owner of record but then hit a dead end. The owner told police that he sold the gun at a gun show and had no record of who bought it.

What do you think? Is that a good illustration of the problem?

Please leave a comment.

Brady Campaign vs. Armslist is About Closing the Private Sale Loophole

The Daily Beast

On April 13th, 2011, Jitka Vesel was walking to her car when she saw a man she knew running toward her, shooting at her with a handgun.

Vesel threw coffee at her attacker and began to run away, but he pursued her and shot her in the back and in the back of the head, killing her and leaving her corpse so disfigured that local police would not allow Vesel’s family to see her body. Vesel was killed by Demetry Smirnov, a man she had met on the Internet and who had stalked her for years after she allegedly ended their brief romantic relationship.

Smirnov bought the .40-caliber handgun he used to kill Vesel via Armslist, an online firearms marketplace that has tens of thousands of guns listed, with no fees, no auctions—and no enforced background checks for buyers.

On Wednesday, Vesel’s family and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a prominent gun-control advocacy group, filed a lawsuit (PDF) against Armslist for negligence in allowing Smirnov to purchase his weapon. The suit claims Smirnov bought the gun illegally: private sellers are restricted to selling guns in-state only; Smirnov was an immigrant from Russia living in Canada when he bought the gun.

The Brady Campaign, represented by Jonathan Lowy, director of the campaign’s Legal Action Project, says this is the first lawsuit against an online gun site for causing a shooting.

Gun control advocates say potentially taking down Armslist is a crucial piece of the complex task of narrowing what they say is a massive loophole that allows criminals to buy guns from private sellers without being background-checked.

While all licensed dealers are required to subject their sellers to a background check, the same rule does not apply to unlicensed, private dealers, many of whom use sites like Armslist, Gun Listings, and Glock Talk to sell weapons.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Still the Gun Show Loophole is Not Closed

The Gun Show Loophole is Still Not Closed

Crossroads of the West - The Biggest Travelling Gun Show in America

Salon reports

Crossroads of the West bills itself as the biggest traveling gun show in America, a bastion for constitutional rights where freedom lovers can exchange weapons, ammunition and ideas. The 35-year-old company promotes events in four states – Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah – and last year’s shows drew more than 407,000 customers at up to $16 bucks a pop. Last weekend, Crossroads occupied the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, and although these expos swing through the area regularly, the parking lot filled up fast.

What makes gun shows such a tricky market for regulators is that often there is very little on the surface to distinguish federal licensed dealers from the private sellers who can sell weapons without a background check. This “Gun Show Loophole” has been a favorite legislative target of gun-control advocates for a decade now, and it’s one of the key provisions in the democratic platform that has so many gun rights advocates riled up. 

Here at Crossroads, private sellers often have tables stocked with an equally dizzying array of firearms – many new in the box – and the only difference is that their weapons are labeled with handwritten garage sale-style price tags, and that instead of fancy canvas signs they often just post a sheet that reads: PRIVATE SELLER/NO PAPER. With enough cash and a flash of your Arizona ID, you can walk away with as many untraceable firearms as you like.

Customers who put a premium on privacy deliberately seek out these private sellers, and critics don’t like customers who put a premium on privacy, namely convicted felons, drug abusers, the mentally ill, or other “prohibited possessors.” Last year, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an advocacy group co-chaired by New York’s Michael Bloomberg, released videos of an undercover sting at a Crossroads show here in Phoenix where investigators were able to buy on several occasions even after baiting vendors with statements like “I probably wouldn’t pass a background check.”

The self-centered nature of the gun-rights folks never ceases to amaze me. It's so obvious that some harm is being done by these private sellers, the only question is how much.  And, without interfering with the lives and rights of lawful gun owners the "private sale loophole" could be eliminated. Yet, they won't hear of it.

Why is that? Could these folks really be that self-absorbed and unconcerned about the preventable gun violence that takes place as a result of this easy access to guns?

They say criminals will always get guns.  But, they don't KNOW that, it's just a guess.  And there's evidence to the contrary. Where there are fewer guns, there are fewer murders, not just murders with guns, but fewer murders, period.

One explanation I can come up with is that the adamant voices which rail against any and all gun control initiatives are just the fringe minority of gun owners at large.  There have been surveys that indicate that even gun owners and  NRA members agree with the background check problem.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Ken Schram on the "Gun Show Loophole"

KOMO News reports

Close the Gun Show Loophole

A recent poll from Mayors against Illegal Guns found that 74 percent of NRA gun owners and 87 percent of non-NRA gun-owners support mandatory criminal background checks in order to purchase a firearm. However, even with this public support, there remain loopholes that allow 40% of gun purchases to occur without a background check, with no questions asked.

From Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

You know what the most common pro-gun response to this suggestion is? "There is no such thing as the gun show loophole." 

They figure the more time they can make us waste arguing about the terminology, the longer this blatant offense against common sense will continue.  Maybe they're right.  Progress certainly is slow in spite of the overwhelming agreement even among gun owners.

What's your opinion? Is it a genius tactic to argue for years about whether it should be called the "gun show loophole" or something else?

I prefer "private sale loophole," but since we all know what we're talking about, I object to all the obfuscation and diversion.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

The Glendale Arizona Gun Show Where the "Gun Show Loophole" is Alive and Well

Local news reports

 

Gun show vendors require background checks when selling guns, sort of.

All licensed dealers do check your criminal history and it usually only takes a few minutes, said Mike Reber of Arizona Arms.

However, private dealers, people who sell their individual guns to buyers at gun shows, don't have to perform such a check as long as they're "reasonably sure you're not a felon," Reber told ABC15.

Reber has a booth this weekend at the "Crossroads of the West Gun Show" in Glendale, and is expecting a large turnout.

While the gun owners and gun sellers are offering facile inane bullshit like "if guns kill people how does anyone come out of a gun show alive?" the NRA and the gun lobby is spending millions to keep the lax laws the way they are.

For years we've been hearing ridiculous arguments justifying the private-sale loophole, and what's been done?  Nothing.

Is it going to change?  What's your opinion?

Please leave a comment.

ATF criminal investigations at Gun Shows from Wikipedia

I posted this as a response to FWM who says that no illegal activity happens at gunshows and that the Bloomberg et al vids are fakes...

 BTW note where it says "The state of Ohio is one of the top ten source states for recovered guns used in crime."

ATF criminal investigations at Gun Shows From Wikipedia

From 2004 to 2006, ATF conducted surveillance and undercover investigations at 195 gun shows (approximately 2% of all shows). Specific targeting of suspected individuals (77%) resulted in 121 individual arrests and 5,345 firearms seizures. Seventy nine of the 121 ATF operation plans were known suspects previously under investigation.^[1]
Additionally, ATF Field Offices report that:

• Between 2002 and 2005, more than 400 guns legally purchased at gun shows from licensed dealers in the city of Richmond, Virginia, were later recovered in connection with criminal activity. Bouchard notes that, "These figures do not take into account firearms that may have been sold at Richmond area gun shows by unlicensed sellers, as these transactions are more difficult to track."^[3] It is noteworthy that the "in connection with criminal activity" category includes stolen guns later recovered from burglaries, but the report does not specify how many guns in the 400 gun figure cited were not guns used in the commission of a crime, but that were rather the fruits of criminal activity.

• The Department of Justice reports, "after reviewing hundreds of trace reports associated with guns used in crime recovered in the New Orleans area and interviewing known gang members and other criminals, ATF Special Agents identified area gun shows as a source used by local gang members and other criminals to obtain guns."^[1]

• In 2003 and 2004, the San Francisco ATF Field Division conducted six general operations at Reno, Nevada, gun shows to investigate interstate firearms trafficking. During these operations, "agents purchased firearms and identified violations related to "off paper" sales, sales to out-of-state residents, and dealing in firearms without a license." The "ATF seized or purchased 400 firearms before making arrests and executing search warrants, which resulted in the seizure of an additional 600 firearms and the recovery of explosives."^[1]

• ATF's Columbus Field Division conducted its anti-trafficking operations based on intelligence from Cleveland police that "many of the guns recovered in high-crime areas of the city had been purchased at local gun shows." Subsequent gun show sting operations resulted in the seizure of "5 guns, one indictment, and two pending indictments for felony possession of a firearm." The state of Ohio is one of the top ten source states for recovered guns used in crime.^[1]

• The ATF's Phoenix Field Division reported that "many gun shows attracted large numbers of gang members from Mexico and California. They often bought large quantities of assault weapons and smuggled them into Mexico or transported them to California."^[1] Garen Wintemute, a professor at the University of California at Davis, calls Arizona and Texas a "gunrunner's paradise."^[26]

Third-World Gun Bazaars vs. U.S. Gun Shows

I've been invited to guest blog here for the rest of the month.

And to thank my co-bloggers for the honor, I've decided to build upon Laci's recent post by creating a poster to summarize the issue a bit more, showing that our extreme gun culture in the U.S. isn't functionally much different from that of the "third-world" countries we are horrified of.  Enjoy.

Other than the fact that these third-world gun markets are less tidy or well-lit and have a bit more dangerous weapons (like fully-auto machine guns -- though the gunloons here in the U.S. would love to have the ability),  I don't see much difference between the gun market of Darra, Pakistan, for instance, and most gun shows here in the U.S.  As with the Darra market, you can walk into most gun shows here in most states and buy as many gunz you want, right up to .50-caliber sniper rifles and semi-auto assault rifles, no background check needed (from private sellers).