Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: [m j p] at [austin.ibm.com]  (Michael J. Phelps)
Subject: Re: TV report on illegal gun sales on CBS tonight
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1993 12:26:54 GMT

In article <20ntm4$[e--b] at [Panix.Com]>, [b--u] at [panix.com] (Bryan Wu) writes:
|> In <20nsbu$[d 1 h] at [Panix.Com]> [b--u] at [panix.com] (Bryan Wu) writes:
|> >There's a report on CBS world news tonight (6:30 EST) about illegal gun
|> >sales (the preview said it's about how easy it is to get a gun on the
|> >street) and related gun laws and federal laws.
|> 
|> I just saw it - it was actually on the CBS evening news - it dealt with
|> how the BATF was required by law to consider only federal gun laws when
|> giving out federal gun dealing licenses.  They said that 250 licenses 
|> are sent out per day whether or not the applicant's was able to get a 
|> local license due to the person's local laws.  (the license itself costs
|> $10/year)  So no matter how strict the local laws were about gun
|> dealing permits, it was still possible to get gun federal gun dealer
|> permits. The main focus of the report was that using these federal gun
|> dealer licenses, these illegal gun dealers can buy large quantities of
|> guns at wholesale rates and over state lines (apparently legally?).  
|> The report ended saying that bills are being introduced to make the 
|> local gun dealer licenses a prerequisite to the fed gun dealer lisence 
|> and that the NRA is lobbying against it.

I noticed a couple of things missing from this:

1. ATF is required by law to perform a background check on the applicant
   prior to issuing the license.
   - unless ATF is failing to do its job, criminals can't get FFLs..
2. The FFL does not bypass state and local laws; they must also be obeyed.
   - failure to do so results in revokation of the FFL
3. The FFL allows law enforcement officers to search the place of business.
   and the books [4473 forms] whenever they want.  If the FFL's place of
   business is also their home, they've consented to warrantless searches.
   - failure to keep the books, etc correctly is a criminal offense.
4. The names and addresses of the FFLs are available to state and local
   officials [i think that at least the states are notified when a license
   is issued].  Its a simple matter to then ensure that the FFL complies
   with all state and local regulations.
5. Any firearm can be traced from manufacturer to wholesaler to FFL.  If
   the FFL's paper isn't in order (see 3) .. can you say 'felony'?

ATF has claimed that the time allotted (45 days?) to perform a background
check is not enough .. which i find somewhat hard to believe.  However,
the NRA has indicated that they'd go along with a longer time period.
Why is there a time period at all?  Because ATF regularly held applications
for rediculous amounts of time [in the '70s]; if they'd done their job
instead of playing stupid games, there probably wouldn't be a time limit
at all.
   
Gee, did CBS just 'forget' to mention all this?  As Golmer Pyle would
say .. Suprise, Suprise, Suprise !!!
-- 
Michael Phelps, (external) [m j p] at [vnet.ibm.com] ..
                (internal) [m j p] at [bwa.kgn.ibm.com] .. mjp at kgnvmc         
 (and last but not least a disclaimer)  These opinions are mine..