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Trial opens secret world of gun smugglers
star ledger ^ | 12.13.08 | Jonathan Schuppe

Posted on 01/15/2009 11:42:36 AM PST by Coleus

Donna Mack knew something was wrong when she heard a car roaring toward the Newark street corner where she had just left her younger sister. But there was no time to react. She saw a hand come out of the passenger's side window. A flash of gunfire, two pops. Then she watched from across the street as her sister, Cynthia Mack, fell to the sidewalk, a stray bullet in her head. The 39-year-old single mother of two died immediately, blood pooling around her body at dusk on a March 2005 night as the gunman sped away. "She never opened her eyes," Donna Mack said.

Six days earlier, the 9 mm pistol that killed Cynthia Mack had been picked from the shelves of a suburban Atlanta firearms store by a 29-year-old home-electronics installer lured into a smuggling operation by the promise of easy cash and a trip to New Jersey. He was one of six people recruited by an ex-con forklift operator from Newark looking to supplement his income by selling guns on the street.

The trafficking ring, a loose partnership of low-rung criminals and their hard-up friends, was broken up in 2007 by agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Newark police. The case culminated this year, when the Newark ringleader went to trial and his gun buyers explained how they got involved in the plot. They offered a rare glimpse inside the hidden world of inner-city gun smuggling, how easy it is to buy guns in bulk elsewhere, and how astonishingly cheap they can be.

Federal investigators found these "straw buyers" both mundane and shocking -- people with no criminal records who were willing to work for little more than pocket money, and could not care less how the guns were used.

(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Georgia; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: atf; atlanta; bang; banglist; guns; gunsmugglers; handguns; newark
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1 posted on 01/15/2009 11:42:37 AM PST by Coleus
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To: Coleus
You mean just making them illeagl won't make them all go away?!?!

;^)

2 posted on 01/15/2009 11:44:26 AM PST by 5thGenTexan
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To: Coleus
I doubt that this unfortunate event was a “stray bullet”. It's more like domestic terrorism used to cow a neighborhood into submission by the application of street shootings.

Our media though will never say too much that's bad about the people that do these animalistic acts- they will focus instead on those who would never dream of doing something like that, but who may someday oppose the media's, and the left’s, agenda.

3 posted on 01/15/2009 11:51:29 AM PST by DBrow
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To: 5thGenTexan
You mean just making them illeagl won't make them all go away?!?!

Well, it worked great for murder.

4 posted on 01/15/2009 11:56:55 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Coleus
There are no more cheap guns left... try buying a gun or ammo today... sky high prices!

LLS

5 posted on 01/15/2009 11:59:22 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (hussein will NEVER be my president... NEVER!)
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To: Coleus
"I can't imagine they thought of the ripple effect it has," Donna Mack said.

Donna,
I grieve with you. These people never thought about the terrible things they were doing because we now have a culture where innocent victims are the furthest things from people's mind. We have made it legal to kill innocent babies in this country and 50 million have been killed since 1973. From that time on, I believe the government has implicitly devalued life and many citizens have followed.
6 posted on 01/15/2009 11:59:42 AM PST by Old Teufel Hunden (I)
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To: Coleus

“...,lured into a smuggling operation by...a trip to New Jersey.”

??????


7 posted on 01/15/2009 12:09:41 PM PST by KrisKrinkle (Blessed be those who know the depth and breadth of their ignorance. Cursed be those who don't.)
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To: Coleus

“”straw buyers” both mundane and shocking — people with no criminal records who were willing to work for little more than pocket money,”

This is BS! Why would someone with no crimnal record at all suddenly decide to sell guns to criminals for little money?


8 posted on 01/15/2009 12:18:55 PM PST by caver (Yes, I did crawl out of a hole in the ground.)
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To: 5thGenTexan

This is exactly what Obama and his gun control nuts will focus on to deprive law abiding citizens of their rights to keep and bear firearms.


9 posted on 01/15/2009 12:25:06 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: caver

There are a lot of stupid people out there. A bigger question is why there are so many people with long criminal histories roaming free, and providing a ready market for these guns? If New Jersey (and other states) would lock them up and keep them locked up, they wouldn’t be on the streets buying guns and transmitting their criminal values to the next generation.


10 posted on 01/15/2009 12:49:20 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: Coleus

So silly. The article itself itemizes the laws broken by the straw purchaser. Is there a magic number of laws that will stop the crime.

The article also repeated the theme that the buyers didn’t care, they wanted the money.

Limits on the number of gun purchases only affects those who will voluntarily abide by them, i.e. legal purchasers.


11 posted on 01/15/2009 2:22:59 PM PST by School of Rational Thought
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To: caver
Why would someone with no crimnal record at all suddenly decide to sell guns to criminals for little money?

Roger Mark Scott had no criminal record, but decided to help in the murder of a 4-year-old boy for $250.

12 posted on 01/16/2009 3:03:35 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

“If New Jersey (and other states) would lock them up and keep them locked up”

That is the truth! There is a serious problem with liberal judges. Too bad some of them are there for life.


13 posted on 01/16/2009 4:43:50 AM PST by caver (Yes, I did crawl out of a hole in the ground.)
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To: DuncanWaring

“Roger Mark Scott had no criminal record, but decided to help in the murder of a 4-year-old boy for $250.”

That is sick.


14 posted on 01/16/2009 4:46:34 AM PST by caver (Yes, I did crawl out of a hole in the ground.)
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