Posted on 08/20/2011 9:22:41 AM PDT by smokingfrog
This is ironic. Gun laws so complicated that well-meaning, if very misguided, people doing these buy-backs may have committed enough crimes to earn them life-sentences.
For decades we’ve heard about gun turn-ins – “Gun Buy-Back” programs sponsored by churches, civic groups, and various other misinformed do-gooder organizations.
The very name – buy-back – implies that guns belong not to individuals, but to the government, or at least to the people who don’t like guns.
The programs have the stated purpose of “getting guns off the street,” which seems to give operators a pass from further scrutiny, even as they offer a tangible good such as a grocery store coupon or gift card in return for a gun, “no questions asked,” much like any other fencing operation.
Finally someone has forced the question: Are these programs legal? Attorney and author of the New Jersey Gun Law Guide, Evan Nappen, not only asked the question, he is offering a $5000 bounty for anyone who can prove an affirmative answer.
Nappen is specifically asking about the legality of a church-sponsored program in the state of New Jersey.
(Excerpt) Read more at johnrlott.blogspot.com ...
I would think technically that these groups doing the buy-backs are operating as firearms dealers without federal licenses. Whether they exchange a good or cash for the firearm they are still taking possession of it in a transaction.
Thus violating federal or local law.
The thing that always bothered me about these things is the “no questions asked” aspect. If they “buy back” a gun that has been used in a crime and dispose of it, are they destroying evidence? A crime in itself unless I’m mistaken.
It FEELS good.
How darest thou question the liberal championing of a cause which smiteth the great conservative beast's noxious tools.
There's the whole buying many firearms without being a licensed firearms dealer, and the can of worms that is opened from that.
If they receive a stolen gun, you can add "theft by receiving stolen property" to the list.
If they receive and destroy a gun which has been used in a crime, you can also add "obstruction of justice," "destruction of evidence of a crime," and several other charges related to that.
I'm not a criminal, but if I were a gang member who had shot someone and left evidence (balistics evidence) at a crime scene, I would sure get my gun to one of these churh operated "no questions asked" gun "buy backs." They would pay me and then destroy the evidence of my crime. It's a win-win situation.
The whole operation is a “IN YOUR FACE” affront law abiding gun owners. It proudly proclaims “We are above the law and you are below us!”
No.
According to the NJ State Police:
(Rifles, shotguns) It is the responsibility of the seller of the firearm to ascertain that the buyer has a Firearms Purchaser Identification Card plus one additional form of identification and a completed Certificate of Eligibility. A Certificate of Eligibility can be obtained at any licensed firearms dealer.
Handguns) A Permit to Purchase a Handgun must be completed on each handgun transferred in this state. It is the responsibility of the seller of the handgun to ascertain that the buyer has a valid Permit to Purchase a Handgun and one additional form of identification. The permit must be completed by the seller and buyer. It is the responsibility of the seller to forward the copies to the appropriate authority. Instructions are printed on the permit.
Source: http://www.state.nj.us/njsp/faq.html
I hold a FFL, I believe there illegal. A few years ago on this forum the PD in East Providence, RI was attempting a BB. Someone filed a lawsuit and stopped it because they were not a licensed dealer.
Thanks.
More from the NRA Institute for Legislative Action:
http://www.nraila.org/media/misc/nj.htm
There are a lot of “gotchas”. They could enlist a licensed dealer to help with the buy, but no dealer in his right mind would be buying guns of dubious origin from unknown people or those without the firearm ID.
Even just taking the guns without any compensation wouldn't get them off the hook. Any time someone raffles a gun or gives one away as a premium, they always insist on doing a background check, even though in that case they arguably don't need to since they're only moving one or two in a year (which is below the level considered dealer-worthy).
The laws you cite are themselves illegitimate: for how can they be legitimate if 1) they are contrary to the 2nd Amendment {despite what many think, the Judiciary is not authorized to alter or amend the Constitution}, and 2) they are Ex Post Facto laws, even according to the USSC’s definition because they retroactively prohibited felons who had served their sentences from possessing firearms.
I think they are and there’s no proof they work. All federal gun control laws and almost all state gun control laws are unconstitutional in my opinion. The federal gun control laws are unconstitutional because there’s no constitutional basis that the feds can point to for passing them, and most of the state gun control laws are unconstitutional because they violate the Second Amendment, which the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment CLEARLY meant to incorporate to the states.
And on top of it, what if you have had some of your firearms stolen, and they’ve some how made it to the other side of the country? If some perp turns in your property in a buyback, and it’s later found out that your firearm was destroyed, do you have cause to sue the PD that destroyed it?
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