Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Crazy Crap / Hargrove / Law and Order Investigation Reveals Embarrassing Facts About Nashville Gun Shows
Posted by Brantley Hargrove on Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Forty undercover investigators roamed the Tennessee Expo Center, the Tennessee State Fairgrounds and five other gun shows in Nevada and Ohio for four months, buying up weapons when the transactions should have been aborted. Investigators walked away with firearms even after they informed the sellers that they probably wouldn't pass background checks. Gun salesmen even turned a blind eye to obvious "straw purchases" -- which is when the buyer brings along a ringer to fill out the paperwork and make the transaction so as to avoid a background check.
Private, unlicensed sellers are not required to run background checks using the FBI database, but they must cancel a sale if they have reason to believe the buyer would fail such a review.
In all, 35 of 47 gun sellers sold weapons to investigators who had flat out told the sellers they were either unlikely to pass background checks or were conducting "straw purchases."
"The gun show loophole is a deadly serious problem -- and the undercover operation exposes just how pervasive and serious it is," Mayor Bloomberg says in a press release. "We are sending a copy of our detailed report Gun Show Undercover to every member of the United States Congress."
The full report and accompanying video will be posted at the above link today at 2 p.m.
Comments (7)
Showing 1-7 of 7
like
dislike
I was wondering aloud what would happen to the monthly Gun Expo at the State Fairgrounds.
Guess I've got an answer, but it wasn't quite the one I was anticipating.
Eliminate all the venues for gun shows and then arrest people who are selling them in parking lots. Our Mayor wasn't a public defender for nothing.
Wait a second. Mayor Bloomberg sent investigators to Nashville? Like police investigators? Aren't there some fucked up jurisdictional matters here? Can one city really investigate another?
According to the Gun Show Undercover folks, ”30 percent of guns involved in federal illegal gun trafficking investigations are connected to gun shows. “
If the NRA and gun nuts had any credibility at all they'd be in favor of closing these loopholes to ensure every gun sale was a legal and safe one.
