Showing posts with label crime guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime guns. Show all posts
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Las Vegas Schools and Guns
CCSD sees spike in guns on campus
It's like a joke. In one of the most gun-friendly states, in the city where guns are glorified like nowhere else, the cops are baffled at the increase in teen gun possession.
What's your opinion? Wouldn't it be fair to blame this on the individual families of these kids, and the society they grew up in and by extension the gun-rights advocates who work so hard to normalize gun ownership, in addition to the criminal kids themselves, of course.
Please leave a comment.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Where do the guns come from?
In this case, North Carolina.
A former US Marine, Steven Greenoe, bought weapons from American gun shops and hid the parts in his luggage and smuggled them to the UK. The prosecuting barrister, Neil Flewitt QC, said the undercover officers paid about £3,600 per gun. He said: "By way of comparison, Steven Greenoe paid approximately £300 for each gun...It follows, therefore, that smuggling guns out of the US to sell to criminals in the UK is an extremely profitable trade."
Mr Flewitt said guns forensically linked to Greenoe were discovered as part of Operation Newhaven on 25 February 2010, when covert police officers in Liverpool paid £10,800 for three Glock handguns. British police said the guns exchanged hands on the UK black market for as much as £5,000 each. Additionally, Greenoe attracted the attention of US authorities.
US prosecutors say Greenoe legally purchased firearms in the US, then illegally transported to the UK, an arsenal of weapons: dozens of Glock 9mm pistols, dozens of Ruger pistols and pistols of other makes. Federal Transportation Security Agents arrested him in July at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, in North Carolina, after finding ammunition and disassembled pistols in his luggage as he was about to board a flight to New York. Documents posted in US courts have revealed that US officials had questioned Greenoe on another occasion about dismantled guns in his luggage on a flight to Atlanta, but he talked his way on to the flight, before travelling on to Manchester.
He said that the he was a firearms salesman and that the guns were not in working order and that the disassembled and disguised firearm components in his luggage were in fact "inert and non-working" engineering samples.
US authorities carried out undercover surveillance of Greenoe and identified 15 separate dates on which 81 firearms were purchased by him or on his behalf. Officers witnessed him dumping the boxes that held the guns and test-fired rounds which come with each weapon. These rounds were forensically matched to firearms used by UK criminals.
The arrest of Steven Greenoe for allegedly shipping handguns into the UK illegally received little press in America. After all, weapons sold in the US frequently find their way on to the black market. And the number of weapons, including assault rifles, that cross the border into Mexico each year are thought to number in the many tens of thousands. A few dozen handguns disappearing into the UK's underworld look paltry by comparison.
Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS) Simon Leach, of Lancashire Police, said his force was leading a criminal investigation into the activities of Mr Greenoe, in conjunction with the one under way in the US. "It is essential that as part of this ongoing investigation that we continue to trace all the weapons that have not yet been recovered and therefore we would appeal to anyone who may have any information that could assist the investigation to come forward and contact police in confidence," he said.
Counter-terrorism officials were also amazed and concerned by the security breach at a time when they have warned that terrorist cells in the UK could be trying to buy guns. Former Scotland Yard counter-terrorism chief Andy Hayman said details of the case were "genuinely shocking". Writing in The Times, he said: "This makes a mockery of the stringent checks we all endure at US airports, such as removing our shoes and belts, having our toothpaste confiscated and all the other irritants...Steven Greenoe's guns could just have easily been bombs."
The real issue is that there is a lot of money to be made selling guns on the black market. This case demonstrates that at least a 10x profit can be made on firearms smuggled to the UK. Of course, the risk is also significant when one is caught. Greenoe has yet to be sentenced in the US but faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1m (£610,000) fine. Does the profit outweigh the risk?
Greenoe thought it was.
See also:
Liverpool gun gang get 57 years jail after Uzi and Glocks seized
A former US Marine, Steven Greenoe, bought weapons from American gun shops and hid the parts in his luggage and smuggled them to the UK. The prosecuting barrister, Neil Flewitt QC, said the undercover officers paid about £3,600 per gun. He said: "By way of comparison, Steven Greenoe paid approximately £300 for each gun...It follows, therefore, that smuggling guns out of the US to sell to criminals in the UK is an extremely profitable trade."
Mr Flewitt said guns forensically linked to Greenoe were discovered as part of Operation Newhaven on 25 February 2010, when covert police officers in Liverpool paid £10,800 for three Glock handguns. British police said the guns exchanged hands on the UK black market for as much as £5,000 each. Additionally, Greenoe attracted the attention of US authorities.
US prosecutors say Greenoe legally purchased firearms in the US, then illegally transported to the UK, an arsenal of weapons: dozens of Glock 9mm pistols, dozens of Ruger pistols and pistols of other makes. Federal Transportation Security Agents arrested him in July at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, in North Carolina, after finding ammunition and disassembled pistols in his luggage as he was about to board a flight to New York. Documents posted in US courts have revealed that US officials had questioned Greenoe on another occasion about dismantled guns in his luggage on a flight to Atlanta, but he talked his way on to the flight, before travelling on to Manchester.
He said that the he was a firearms salesman and that the guns were not in working order and that the disassembled and disguised firearm components in his luggage were in fact "inert and non-working" engineering samples.
US authorities carried out undercover surveillance of Greenoe and identified 15 separate dates on which 81 firearms were purchased by him or on his behalf. Officers witnessed him dumping the boxes that held the guns and test-fired rounds which come with each weapon. These rounds were forensically matched to firearms used by UK criminals.
The arrest of Steven Greenoe for allegedly shipping handguns into the UK illegally received little press in America. After all, weapons sold in the US frequently find their way on to the black market. And the number of weapons, including assault rifles, that cross the border into Mexico each year are thought to number in the many tens of thousands. A few dozen handguns disappearing into the UK's underworld look paltry by comparison.
Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS) Simon Leach, of Lancashire Police, said his force was leading a criminal investigation into the activities of Mr Greenoe, in conjunction with the one under way in the US. "It is essential that as part of this ongoing investigation that we continue to trace all the weapons that have not yet been recovered and therefore we would appeal to anyone who may have any information that could assist the investigation to come forward and contact police in confidence," he said.
Counter-terrorism officials were also amazed and concerned by the security breach at a time when they have warned that terrorist cells in the UK could be trying to buy guns. Former Scotland Yard counter-terrorism chief Andy Hayman said details of the case were "genuinely shocking". Writing in The Times, he said: "This makes a mockery of the stringent checks we all endure at US airports, such as removing our shoes and belts, having our toothpaste confiscated and all the other irritants...Steven Greenoe's guns could just have easily been bombs."
The real issue is that there is a lot of money to be made selling guns on the black market. This case demonstrates that at least a 10x profit can be made on firearms smuggled to the UK. Of course, the risk is also significant when one is caught. Greenoe has yet to be sentenced in the US but faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1m (£610,000) fine. Does the profit outweigh the risk?
Greenoe thought it was.
See also:
Liverpool gun gang get 57 years jail after Uzi and Glocks seized
Friday, September 2, 2011
How does one lose a gun?
Or for that matter at least 16,485 firearms? That's the number the Brady Organisation is saying went missing from 2009 to the middle of 2011 without a record of being legally sold. And the Brady's say this is likely to be a vast undercount of the total number of guns that disappeared from gun manufacturers in the two and a half year period.
The missing guns were noted at ATF compliance inspections of gun manufacturers. Nationwide there are 4,487 licensed gun manufacturers, but due to funding restrictions ATF conducts compliance inspections each year at only about one-fifth of the nation’s licensed gun dealers and manufacturers.
Weak federal gun laws allow gun manufacturers and dealers to operate without security or inventory controls. Under federal law, a gun manufacturer or dealer is not required to secure its inventory from loss or theft or take an inventory of its firearms to account for any that are lost or stolen.
This lack of any security or inventory requirement for gun manufacturers and dealers makes it easy for gun sellers to claim falsely that firearms they have sold illegally and “off-the-books,” were lost or stolen. Federal law requires that gun manufacturers and dealers report guns that are lost or stolen,18 but does not require them to undertake any effort to determine whether guns are missing from their inventory.
The notorious manufacturer was Kahr Arms. One of Kahr's employees, Mark Cronin, was alleged to have taken guns from the factory to sell on the street. It is alleged that Kahr Arms hired Cronin despite a public record of drug addiction, theft to support that addiction, alcohol abuse, and violence, including several assault charges. Cronin stated that he was able to take guns from the Kahr Arms factory at will, before the guns had serial numbers stamped on them. At the time, Worcester Police Captain Paul F. Campbell called Kahr Arm’s recordkeeping so “shoddy” that it was possible to remove weapons without detection.
In July 2011, Kahr Arms agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to end the case, and the settlement is the largest damages payment ever by a gun manufacturer charged with negligence leading to the criminal use of a gun. The settlement is also significant because it was made after enactment of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (“PLCAA”), a federal gun law that the gun industry contends shields it from most liability cases. By agreeing to the settlement, Kahr Arms averted a pending motion challenging the applicability and constitutionality of the PLCAA.
Kahr Arms had moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the PLCAA bars such cases. In response to Kahr Arm’s dismissal motion, Brady Center attorneys argued that the statute does not immunize gun companies, and is unconstitutional. Prior to enactment of the gun industry liability protection law, the court had ruled that the Guzman family’s claims were meritorious and should proceed to trial.
The gun lobby should be ashamed as hell at the amount of guns that have fallen through the cracks. Will it make a difference to anyone that the gun industry has "lost" 8 times as many guns in 2 years time as the ATF lost in their failed Fast and Furious program? But will that be pointed out on Fox News?
Hey, nothing like weak gun laws to get guns to criminals! And a tame press to stop the outrage.
The Brady Report can be found here.
The missing guns were noted at ATF compliance inspections of gun manufacturers. Nationwide there are 4,487 licensed gun manufacturers, but due to funding restrictions ATF conducts compliance inspections each year at only about one-fifth of the nation’s licensed gun dealers and manufacturers.
Weak federal gun laws allow gun manufacturers and dealers to operate without security or inventory controls. Under federal law, a gun manufacturer or dealer is not required to secure its inventory from loss or theft or take an inventory of its firearms to account for any that are lost or stolen.
This lack of any security or inventory requirement for gun manufacturers and dealers makes it easy for gun sellers to claim falsely that firearms they have sold illegally and “off-the-books,” were lost or stolen. Federal law requires that gun manufacturers and dealers report guns that are lost or stolen,18 but does not require them to undertake any effort to determine whether guns are missing from their inventory.
The notorious manufacturer was Kahr Arms. One of Kahr's employees, Mark Cronin, was alleged to have taken guns from the factory to sell on the street. It is alleged that Kahr Arms hired Cronin despite a public record of drug addiction, theft to support that addiction, alcohol abuse, and violence, including several assault charges. Cronin stated that he was able to take guns from the Kahr Arms factory at will, before the guns had serial numbers stamped on them. At the time, Worcester Police Captain Paul F. Campbell called Kahr Arm’s recordkeeping so “shoddy” that it was possible to remove weapons without detection.
In July 2011, Kahr Arms agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to end the case, and the settlement is the largest damages payment ever by a gun manufacturer charged with negligence leading to the criminal use of a gun. The settlement is also significant because it was made after enactment of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (“PLCAA”), a federal gun law that the gun industry contends shields it from most liability cases. By agreeing to the settlement, Kahr Arms averted a pending motion challenging the applicability and constitutionality of the PLCAA.
Kahr Arms had moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the PLCAA bars such cases. In response to Kahr Arm’s dismissal motion, Brady Center attorneys argued that the statute does not immunize gun companies, and is unconstitutional. Prior to enactment of the gun industry liability protection law, the court had ruled that the Guzman family’s claims were meritorious and should proceed to trial.
The gun lobby should be ashamed as hell at the amount of guns that have fallen through the cracks. Will it make a difference to anyone that the gun industry has "lost" 8 times as many guns in 2 years time as the ATF lost in their failed Fast and Furious program? But will that be pointed out on Fox News?
Hey, nothing like weak gun laws to get guns to criminals! And a tame press to stop the outrage.
The Brady Report can be found here.
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