Gun control advocates’ fight to degrade and destroy Americans’ right to keep and bear arms on many fronts. They cry for “universal background checks” to “close the gun show loophole.” They call out for “gun violence restraining orders” to confiscate guns without due process. They seek a ban on “military style assault rifles” and “high-capacity magazines.” Even though they’re coordinated by Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety (a.k.a., thetrace.org), the antis [thankfully] suffer from anti-gun ADD. They flit from front to front. Here’s an oldie but a baddie . . .
forcing gun stores to institute policies and procedures to choke off gun sales, under the guise of fighting “gun violence.”
Remember the [now moribund] Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ Responsible Firearms Retail Partnership? The “voluntary code” failed to find favor amongst gun stores, perhaps because it mandated videotaping all transactions and ignoring “default proceeds” (sales made when the FBI fails to finish a background check within the specified three-day period). Amongst other things.
The RFRP morphed into the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s “Dealer Code of Conduct,” which includes all the provisos in the Mayors’ code plus limiting gun buyers to one gun a month. See what they’re doing there? Attempting to convince/bully gun dealers into instituting policies that the antis can’t achieve through legislation.
So, the gun store formerly known as Badger Guns.
That’s the Milwaukee gun store in the headlines last week: Milwaukee gun shop found negligent in police officers’ lawsuit. A straw purchaser bought a gun from Badger. The “real” recipient shot two cops. After the verdict, a Washington Post reporter visited the “the nation’s most notorious crime-gun store” – renamed Brew City Shooters Supply – and discovered a model for the gun store of the future – as far as anti-gunners are concerned. But first, writer Dan Simmons p-sses on Badger’s from a great height.
Badger Guns, an unassuming gun shop set amid the strip malls and industrial sites just south of the ballpark where the Milwaukee Brewers play, was once America’s most notorious purveyor of guns used to commit crimes.
The place peddled 3,000 guns a year and didn’t care much about who bought them, police and prosecutors say. In one two-year period, six Milwaukee police officers were shot and wounded with weapons purchased at Badger Guns.
“Everybody knew about . . . Badgers,” testified Julius Burton, who was 18 when he persuaded a 21-year-old friend to buy him the gun he used to shoot two Milwaukee police officers in 2009. Burton is serving 80 years in prison. “This is where a lot of people go, so I was like, ‘I’ll go there.’ ”
Never mind the defence’s argument or context (gun stores are not liable for legally sold firearms), guilty! Now, the “good news” . . .
For gun stores contemplating whether to change their practices to protect themselves legally, there’s a model for them to follow: the new Badger Guns.
[New manager] Mike Allan’s first move was to adopt a members-only model that requires customers to register with the store and to pay a membership fee. Would-be buyers must also demonstrate proficiency with a firearm.
Those changes, Nasci said, set the tone for driving off unsavory types . . .
. . . there are also signs laying out strict rules for would-be buyers:
“Must be 21 to enter. Proper ID required.”
“No cell phones allowed.”
And for the droopy-drawered set of possible customers: “Pull your pants up or don’t come in. Try to have some decency and respect. No one wants to see your underwear.”
The rules are serious, Schwarz said: Staff members “will ask you to leave” if you show up with a cellphone. The policy is designed to prevent straw buyers from texting photos of guns to friends outside.
The “model” for a “legally protected” gun store of the future: a retail operation where all customers must be 21 or older to enter, register their name, address and other particulars with the owner (presumably including a fee), undergo a background check before even thinking about buying a gun (which may exceed the mandatory FBI NICS search for purchase).
No doubt: the new policies would reduce the possibility of straw purchases. As for reducing “gun violence” in a city plagued by gang-related, firearms-related crime, niente. A fact that WaPo’s Simmons felt obliged to mention.
Although the reinvented Badger Guns is no longer a problem, Nasci noted that all is hardly well in Milwaukee. Gun shops can’t operate within the city limits, but many, like Badger Guns, have cropped up in bordering towns.
As Badger became Brew City and tightened its standards, other stores, including chain outdoors retailers and smaller suburban gun shops, have seen a troubling increase in the number of guns they sold that wind up being used by criminals, Nasci said. Milwaukee is also struggling with a huge spike in homicides and other violent crimes.
“We have a whole other group that now are the top crime-gun sellers in Wisconsin,” Nasci said.
Brew City is not immune. Nasci said police have recovered some guns sold by Brew City during investigations of recent crimes. Still, he said, the store has mostly stayed true to Allan’s pledge to clean up his father’s business.
Mostly true? This must not stand! Face it: the antis will not be satisfied until no “crime guns” come from any gun store. They will keep on agitating for onerous rules for gun sales until the flow stops. And the only way to do that? Stop gun sales. As if you didn’t know . . .