“A Kingston man sold a high-powered rifle to the wrong man at a gun show [according to] state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman,” recordonline.com reports. “Peter Tirc, 53, is among 10 people the attorney general has charged with selling weapons to someone they knew could not pass the required background checks at gun shows. Tirc, according to the attorney general’s office, sold a Remington 25.06 rifle at a gun show Aug. 27 in Saratoga. It was a sting operation. The buyer was an undercover agent. The agent told dealers he could not legally buy a gun from them because he had committed domestic violence before and thus could not pass the required background check. The dealer still sold it to the agent, the attorney general’s office is charging. Tirc faces a misdemeanor count and more court action at a later date.” In other words . . .
New York’s Attorney General sent a fake buyer (or two or three) to a gun show with the express purpose of illegally purchasing a gun. As far as we know, none of the people who agreed to sell a firearm to the faux domestic abuser had any prior history of illegal gun sales. If we assume that all Americans are innocent until proven guilty, what probable cause did the cops have to attempt to target the “dealers” and lure them into illegal behavior?
Notice the quotes around the word dealers. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the gun show 10 were professional merchants of death, given the report’s description. But it’s entirely likely that at least some of those ensnared by Schneiderman’s secret police were private citizens selling firearms privately—an activity that does not require a criminal background check. Not even in New York. Here’s a clue from the nydailynews.com:
“I am just a Vietnam vet that was selling a gun I had no use for,” said Sam Savino of North Bellmore, who was snared in the probe.
In fact, how many non-dealers at the gun show were approached by the State’s “gonna get a gotcha” gun goon didn’t sell the pretend criminal a firearm—remembering that it’s a criminal offense to attempt to purchase a firearm illegally. Also keeping in mind that we don’t know what the secret agent said.
Was he coercive? How persistent was he? Did he try to lure his marks by offering stupid amounts of cash? Did he threaten them? Did he appeal to the better nature? “My wife made up these charges against me. You know how women can be. And I really need a gun to protect myself . . .”
That’s the problem when you send a government official to manufacture criminals: they manufacture criminals. If Schneiderman’s shock troops had returned from the gun show empty-handed, well, they weren’t going to let that happen were they? These ops cost time and money and represent a huge investment of political capital.
To wit: this “gun show loophole” bust happened in August. The press release hits the net in December? Tell me it has nothing to do with the progress (or lack thereof) of Mayor Bloomberg’s Fix Gun Checks legislation.
Back to the heart of the matter: probable cause. The government justifies the use of “sting” operations at gun shows (and everywhere else) on the simple basis of expediency. THIS IS A PROBLEM! SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! Only it’s not true.
If gun show sales to criminals was a widespread problem, the government wouldn’t have to “trick” citizens into doing it. They could just stand by and watch it happen. And then arrest someone. Or wait until someone committed a crime, trace the sale back to a gun show seller and then arrest someone.
The idea that gun show sales to criminals isn’t a big deal rankles the pols, the police and their sycophantic supporters in the mainstream media. Gun shows rankle them. They’re trying to take guns off the street and here’s a bunch of people buying and selling firearms without any government oversight? That kind of freedom we can live without. Well, they can.
In an editorial in poughkeepsiejournal.com (Gun Checks Are Vital) the paper pronounces “These background checks must be taken seriously, and the laws should be enforced and even bolstered to ensure they are.” Uh no. Here’s commentator John Nelson‘s take:
“Of course we see from the USDOJ Background Check & Firearm transfer report 2008 Brady Check report that of the 99 million checks for purchases from licensed sources only, since 1994.
We see a total of 1.67 million valid rejections, a 68% decrease in felons attempting to buy from a licensed source, and 58% of those rejected being felons.
We see that between 2000-2008 only 13,024 were prosecuted, or less than 1%.
We of course see how the anti gun lobby claims such effectiveness of this pathetically useless law with the hard data they can present that the 1.66 million plus who weren’t prosecuted then didn’t go and buy from an unlicensed source?
We also see how the USDOJ survey in 1997 where felons identified purchasing their weapons from 80% street buys, 12% retail stores, 2% gun shows.
Then that 68% reduction of attempted buys from licensed sources puts the street buys/theft at 95.52%, 3.64% retail stores, .64% gun shows in today’s numbers. Firearm Use by Offenders, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2001.
Amazing how ineffective that poster child of futility is and this trend is similar with ALL gun control laws.
Yet more laws will prevent criminals and terrorists from getting a firearm, ROTFLMFAO, uh yeah, and the moon is made of cheese and the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, right!
Here’s a sting story from CBS. Undercover congressional investigators using fake IDs were able to skirt mandatory background checks and purchase guns in all of the five states where they tried, according to a report issued Wednesday.
The General Accounting Office study concluded that the national background check system for purchasing guns “cannot ensure that the prospective purchaser is not a felon.”
The system checks only whether the gun buyer had a criminal history but does not require any check to see whether the name or identification being used by the buyer is real.
So explain again how the 80 mil law abiding gun owners are responsible for the massive failures of the government/BATf not enforcing existing laws, and prove that more than .64% (thats less than 1% to you math illiterates) of the felons, 95.52% of those who dont even attempt to buy from a licensed source, occur at gun shows.
Please show everyone how the BATF has changed their system so that the everyday citizen can use the NICS system when today, only licensed FFL dealers can use said system.
Get a clue, then again, progressives with an anti freedom agenda like yours are not interested in people exercising their rights, you are only concerned with taking them away!”