what's next, going after gun sales in the NEWSPAPER???
Posted on 12/14/2011 7:29:53 PM PST by neverdem
Listings websites "really needs to clean up its act," sez Hizzoner
The notorious “gun show loophole” that gives criminals and maniacs easy access to firearms has gone online.
Undercover investigators for the city found thousands of guns - including one just like the 9mm Ruger that killed Officer Peter Figoski on Monday - being sold online by private peddlers who don’t have to perform background checks on buyers.
Not only did investigators
find it a breeze to buy pistols and assault rifles with no questions asked, but 77 of 125 sellers in 14 states agreed to complete the sale even after the buyer said he couldn’t pass a background check.
At a City Hall press conference, Mayor Bloomberg played tape after tape of drawling Southern gun dealers laughing - a few nervously, most with amusement - when the undercover buyer said he couldn’t have passed a background check.
“I probably couldn’t either!” said a cackling seller in Arizona who was hawking the 9mm Ruger handgun for $500.
Background checks are designed to keep felons and the mentally ill from buying guns.
“Unscrupulous online gun sales pose a significant threat to public safety,” Mayor Bloomberg said Wednesday as he unveiled a report titled ‘Point, Click, Fire: An Investigation of Illegal Online Gun Sales.’
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, “I-95 is a very effective way of getting guns into the city. We don’t need an electronic highway to make it easier.”
The city report said a significant portion of American weapons sales have moved from parking lot gun shows to the Internet.
Private sellers are often presumed to be hobbyists making only occasional sales, but they actually carry out about 40% of all U.S. gun sales, the report said.
City investigators found more than 25,000 guns for sale on 10 websites alone.
“It is clear that the market is significant – and that many of these sales are largely unregulated and undocumented,” the report concluded.
Opponents of gun control have successfully kept private sellers exempt from federal laws governing licensed firearms dealers: they don’t have to keep sales records, report multiple purchases or perform background checks.
But they are legally barred from selling to anyone they “have reasonable cause to believe” is a felon, fugitive or fruitcake.
The city found the shadiest gun sellers on Craigslist, where 14 of 17 failed the “integrity test” and agreed to sell to someone who said he couldn’t buy a gun from a licensed dealer.
“Craigslist really needs to clean up its act,” Bloomberg said.
The lightly-moderated listings site officially prohibits firearms listings but investigators found 1,792 guns for sale over three months, the report said.
Armslist.com had 13,660.
“This investigation for the first time takes a snapshot of this new online gun market, and unfortunately it's not a pretty picture,” said John Feinblatt, the mayor’s chief policy adviser.
Bloomberg called on Congress to pass legislation introduced after the January Tucson massacre that would close the loophole.
“Federal law should require a background check for every gun sale - not just those involving licensed dealers,” Bloomberg said.
Kelly said the 1963 revelation that Lee Harvey Oswald bought his rifle through the mail, an outcry led to the banning of gun sales through the mail.
“We shouldn't have to wait for the assassination of a president or the killing of a police officer to dismantle a conduit bringing illicit guns into the city,” he said.
And every single transfer is through a licensed FFL who calls the FBI and runs an instant background check.
Thanks neverdem.
what's next, going after gun sales in the NEWSPAPER???
CRAIGSLIST? Guns are considered such a no-no on Craigslist that their hippie audience will flag away such an advertisement in seconds. Armslist is a completely different enterprise.
Yeah.
Only our government should be doing shady gun deals.
Craigslist is a left-leaning website and has NEVER listed firearms. WTF are they talking about?
It’s outrageous some of the things you can buy on Craig’s List without going through a background check. I saw a 2010 Maserati on there once. I was shocked at the idea that anyone in the world could just go out and buy one with no waiting period, no background check and no age limit either. They just had to have the money! It’s an outrage!
LOL!
Bloomie, Bloomie - I guess now that Elaine’s is closed you don’t really know what to do with yourself.
Why don’t you call your buddy Barry and see if he’ll let you tag along on the family’s next Hawaiian vacation...
“Craigslist is a left-leaning website and has NEVER listed firearms.”
I just searched Craigslist thoroughly. No guns. Accessories, but no mags.
Bloomberg can find some illegal gun sales. He can call the seller, Eric Holder directly.
Let’s pause a second and consider the amazingly stupid statements from Bloomberg and Company. How they can stand there with straight faces and outright lie in such outrageous ways is embarrassing because they are idiots or scary because this is Nazi like propaganda. I think they know better. I believe that they know they are telling falsehoods. They are low life gun grabbers. People in the freedom stealing business.
Bloomberg is such a tool. A guy that got lucky and made a few bucks. But that is all he is....
We don't want his kind messing around here anymore.
Those background checks aren't perfect, either. Some people who have no business with a firearm can pass them, while others have difficulty. My son has a friend who is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and he gets delayed every single time he purchases a firearm.
The rest of the country never elected him God.
OK, and there's some reason we know that 40% of all US gun sales AREN'T conducted by hobbyists making occasional sales.....
“I just searched Craigslist thoroughly. No guns. Accessories, but no mags.”
The ads rarely say rifle, pistol, or gun. I bought a Mauser off CL last year. Found it while looking for scopes.
Steve
I’ve never seen a gun listed on craigslist. And I’m on there regularly. Anyone who tries will get the listing taken down very quickly. They even flag accessory postings quite often.
Is this really on the books in all 50 states? The author mixes and matches NY laws with those of Virginia and Arizona to make his point while forgetting that the people of those states get to decide for themselves. He also employs a clever slight of hand here by quoting the "reasonable cause to believe" part of the law but then insert his unquoted felon, fugitive or fruitcake comments, making it appear as a citation of some actual law that is being broken. Most states have no such requirement.
The federal government does not have a monopoly on the regulation of firearms transactions...only those that cross state lines (interstate commerce) and involve federally licensed dealers. Face to face, private sales between residents of a state is not a loophole, it is an intentional arrangment to protect the 2A rights of citizens, something Bloomie and his gang of gun grabbing Mayors seems to forget
Mayor Bloomberg slams Craigslist over LEGAL gun sales
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said:
“We shouldn't have to wait for the assassination of a president or the killing of a police officer to dismantle a conduit bringing illicit guns into the city,”
No mention of Mayors.....
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