Would that be illegal guns in Tennessee or illegal guns in NYC, which is most of them
Bloomberg does the opinion piece for mayors against guns a gun control organization that is funded by the Joyce Foundation. Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam is a member of the anti-gun coalition of mayors (see background info here) and that is why I personally am boycotting Pilot Oil. Nothing new in this misguided screed but I found this interesting:
At today’s summit, we will be joined by representatives from the American Hunters and Shooters Association, because — as a new national poll shows — the vast majority of gun-owning Americans support common-sense measures to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, including eliminating restrictions on gun trace data.
The vast majority of Americans don’t know what current gun control laws are. You remember the American Hunters and Shooters Association? They are an anti-gun group masquerading as a pro-gun group. Seems they’re now on board. I find this significant because mayor Haslam has indicated, the one time I’ve heard him actually address the issue, that being against illegal guns is reasonable. However, this organization doesn’t just target illegal guns. They advocate gun control. They are a gun control group who support ludicrous pipe dreams such as microstamping. They also want access to trace data for data mining purposes, which even the ATF has said does nothing to indicate criminal activity. And they oppose standards for revocation of federal firearms licenses. And you would think that a group concerned about illegal transfers of firearms would support modernizing that process. They do not. In short, their goal is to limit lawful access to weapons. And, of course, they’re trying to sue gun dealers out of business. One other mayor has left the group due to its anti-gun agenda. But Mayor Haslam continues his membership in an anti-gun group.
Bloomberg talks about illegal guns and common sense measures. Apparently, he thinks a common sense measure is to commit a felony while conducting bogus investigations. This is precisely what he did when he paid investigators to lie on ATF Form 4473 and commit straw purchases. That is illegal.
The other issue is that guns that are illegal in NYC aren’t illegal in, well, most places. And most places don’t register firearms nor do most places require you to pay $439 in fees to obtain a permit to own a gun. That’s not common sense. That is prohibition.
Update: Jeff reminds us that they’re meeting today. I hear there will be protests.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:53 am
Yeah, $439 for a three year permit just to keep ONE gun in your own house.
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Did they actually lie, or just pretend to lie? There’s a difference. Were these actual straw purchases, or were they “simulated”?
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Not quite sure, ben. But the form does ask if you’re the actual purchaser and if they weren’t, they lied. And if they were, then their allegations are false.
January 25th, 2007 at 6:28 am
Say Uncle is correct. Below is my response on Jeff’s site. While it may seem a distinction without a difference if we do not label what was done properly, we leave a gunliar loophole for the BATFE to slide through in their sudden desire for non enforcement.
Please quit calling what Bloomberg did “straw purchases”. They may or may not have been. We just don’t know. A required element of a straw purchase is that it be bought for transfer of possession to a “prohibited” person. We do not know for certain that is true.
What we do know for certain is that Bloomberg and his agents committed federal felonies by falsifying the 4473 forms which ask if the purchaser is the “actual purchaser”. The only way the sale can go through is with a yes answer. If the purchaser is an agent of another, even a person who is not a prohibited person, he must answer no. A “no” answer kills the sale.
So we do know that Bloomberg and his agents are guilty of numerous federal felonies. If we force the straw purchase argument we may lose because the agency the firearms were purchased for were not “prohibited” persons. And we can rely on any prosecution or investigation will be constucted as narrowly as possible to present an appearance of due diligence while securing the desired outcome of the gungrabbers. Ergo, it behooves us to call the crimes they committed more accurately.
Any investigation into falsifying the 4473’s can have only a “yep, they did it” outcome. Not so with the “straw purchase” approach, for the reasons above.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:05 am
My post about the Bloomberg Protest rally in DC is up.
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