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Bloomberg sets sights on illegal gun sales online
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Almost two thirds of a sample of private online gun sellers in the United States were willing to sell a firearm to someone who could not pass a background check, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday.
Bloomberg, who is leading a national campaign against illegal guns, said a national investigation into online gun sales by private investigators hired by New York City uncovered a "vast and largely unregulated market for illegal guns."
The inquiry focused on 10 websites with 25,000 guns to buy and investigators contacted 125 private online gun sellers in 14 states. The investigators, posing as buyers, told sellers they probably would not pass a background check, Bloomberg said.
"When illegal guns can be bought and sold without background checks, tragic and deadly consequences result," Bloomberg said in a statement.
"Over the past decade, we've launched a wide-ranging attack on illegal guns," he said. "We're opening a new front in that battle by targeting what has become an increasingly prevalent and dangerous problem: illegal gun sales on the internet."
Bloomberg is co-chairman of the national coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which he helped found in 2006 in a bid to make cities safer by cracking down on illegal guns.
More than 500 mayors from more than 40 states are now members of Bloomberg's coalition. The group says 30,000 Americans are killed every year by gun violence.
Bloomberg said the city's inquiry into online sales, conducted by investigative firm Kroll, found 62 percent of sellers were willing to commit a felony by selling a firearm to someone who likely wouldn't pass a background check.
The National Rifle Association, the powerful U.S. gun lobby, was not immediately available for comment on the study.
According to the Department of Justice there are more than 4,000 websites that offer guns for sale and about 40 percent of U.S. gun sales are conducted privately.
Licensed sellers are required to conduct background checks, but private sellers are not. However, private sellers are not allowed to sell guns to people they have reason to believe could not pass a background check.
Bloomberg said the private investigators recorded telephone calls with sellers during the investigation and used concealed cameras when meeting with them in person.
The sellers called were in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
"When the world learned that Lee Harvey Oswald purchased his weapon through the mail, there was a huge outcry and the Gun Control Act of 1968 regulated the sale of guns through the mail," New York 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," Kelly said.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Greg McCune and Jerry Norton)
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Well, actually I guess he can’t, since that would probably make his private investigators participants in a criminal act. After all, they aren’t police so they don’t have any authority to conduct these types of ‘sting’ operations.
And actually, even if they were police officers, these cases would definitely fall under the heading of entrapment. And unless they had a court order, they could very well be guilty of illegal wire-tapping.
No, it’s probably best that these ‘investigators’ stick to the shadows, or someone might run a real ‘sting’ operation on them…
What is so sad here is that Mr Bloomberg’s knee-jerk reaction to some people not obeying the existing law is to pass a new, more restrictive one. A law that would ban people from lawfully selling their own personal property without government approval. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
His idea is like saying that because some people get speeding tickets, no one should be able to sell their car except through a dealer. Doesn’t make sense does it? Yet cars are far more dangerous objects than guns in every way.
Oh, and just for context, this ‘powerful gun lobby’ known as the NRA runs on a budget of approximately $150 million dollars a year to represent over 4 million citizens.
Mr. Bloomberg has an estimated $19 billion (that’s with a “B”) in personal wealth to represent one persons view. Who do you think the politicians rub up against at contribution time?
The simple fact of the matter is that the era of the professional gun control lobby is passing. Politicians may need Mr. Bloombergs’ money, but they need the NRAs’ 4 million voters more.
As more and more Americans realize that gun ownership is a safe and sane proposition, they are rejecting the illogical arguments made by the anti-rights crowd and are looking for truly ‘reasonable’ firearms laws. Laws that respect and enhance the Second Amendment and a responsible citizens right to exercise that freedom.
Yes, and like most all of the 20,000 gun laws passed since then, it made no difference. Criminals and murderers don’t obey gun laws. Duh.
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