Gun Industry Ex-Official Describes Bond of Silence

I am absolutely certain that most gun manufacturers know that there is almost no illegal diversion of the firearms they make at the manufacturing level. That is where they have some modicum of control. It means that they do not violate the law and sell their products outside of the Federally regulated distributor market and they take every reasonable means to prevent pilfering of their stock.

What of it? Watch manufacturers take every reasonable means to prevent the pilfering of their stock and only sell to distributors. This is a normal and reasonable business practice and there is little that the firearms manufacturers could do other than open up their own wholly owned dealerships in each state to compete with the small gun shops or engage in mail order sales (which would require repeal of the current Federal laws banning that practice). I am willing to wager that most distributorships and FFL dealers would make the same statement. These people do not wish to go to jail and do not knowingly violate Federal law by selling to people they know are remarketing the firearms they sell. Neither do they knowingly cover up thefts of their stock in trade. One does not make money by allowing people to steal their property and having to fill out those insurance claim forms which usually have a deductible attached.

Of course the man who made this statement is knowingly trying to make a perfectly reasonable fact of life seem nefarious. Gun grabboids are totalitarian monsters and should be treated as such.

I don't have a problem with the ATF doing their job inspecting FFLs. I think that would make a difference in how many firearms are diverted from legal channels into the black market.

Please explain how the ATF doing its job in any way affects the flow of firearms to the black market? An ATF inspection may see a number of purchases to a single indicidual and yet that in no way implies any wrong doing on the part of any gun dealer. The BATF is merely enforcing record keeping requirements. According to the violence policy center the cost of large capacity 9mm on the street is $50 to $100. Please explain how a firearms dealer can make money or even stay in business paying two to three times the street value of a firearm then reselling it at less than street value? According to the ATF's own stats the vast majority of the firearms in circulation on the street have been stolen.

I don't think that's a job the ATF finds real exciting. Examining millions of forms each year at dealers doesn't get the ATF the front page publicity for the congressional show and tells at budget time.

My big problem with the ATF is that the Federal Government is specifically prohibited from infringing on the right to keep and bear arms. What part of the words infringing, keep, and bear are unclear?

Fox Butterfield

There's the first problem right there.

a White House meeting with President Bill Clinton to discuss preventing more school shootings like the one at Columbine High School in Colorado
Klinton meeting..nuff said again.

disband his organization in favor of the more conservative National Shooting Sports Foundation
He lost his job due to NRA influenced internal politics. That's nothing new. I've seen it firsthand.

including a stint as a lawyer for the N.R.A.,
Doesn't mean a thing.

"we've got a bunch of right-wing wackos at the N.R.A. controlling everything."

Ricker is full of crap. The NRA is not right wing wackos.

IMO, this is internal politics, the NRA and Ricker had a nasty split for one reason or another, and Ricker wants to jump into a case of one-upsmanship to get even.

Mr. Ricker, a moderate in an industry dominated by hard-liners, lost his post as executive director of the American Shooting Sports Council in 1999 after attending a White House meeting with President Bill Clinton to discuss preventing more school shootings like the one at Columbine High School in Colorado..... The meeting was opposed by the National Rifle Association, and Mr. Ricker said in his affidavit that pressure from the rifle association led the gun industry to disband his organization in favor of the more conservative National Shooting Sports Foundation.

There you have it - - the guy is a liar and a scumbag with an axe to grind.

...said in an affidavit filed in court in San Diego yesterday that gun manufacturers had long known that some of their dealers corruptly sold guns to criminals but pressured one another into remaining silent for fear of legal liability.

What a pathetic allegation. Meaningless - - a puff of air.
Leave it to the NY Times to breathlessly make this non-story into the next 'Insider', or whatever that tobacco movie was called.

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