There's good news and bad news in a new AP story dealing with the sale of firearms in America. Unfortunately the best news is buried far down the page and all but dismissed in a single paragraph:
The database also shows that most gun shops rarely, if ever, sell a weapon later linked to a crime. But a few shops account for a remarkably large number of these guns.
Imagine that. Doesn't it basically mean that were the legal sale of firearms outlawed tomorrow, criminals could still get their guns while the average citizen could not? That's what it implies for me. But there are some trouble spots and the ATF seems to be focusing more on those, leading to an explosion in the revocation of gun sales permits:
Over the past three years, ATF agents have cracked down on some of the stores most notorious for selling large numbers of weapons used in street crime. In 2005 and 2006, some 220 firearms dealers had their licenses revoked - 20 more than in the previous eight years combined.
I'm all for preventing criminals from obtaining firearms, however they try to get them. But the issue isn't a simple one and both Law Enforcement and gun advocates have their points. Unfortunately, some of the LE arguments point to some type of Federal resolution. And given our current crop of politicians and their willingness to ignore citizen's opinion while attempting to pass legislation a majority of Americans don't support, I doubt the Federal Government warrants enough trust to take on an issue so fundamental to one's sense of freedom and independence for many Americans.
In a 2000 report, ATF officials said that nearly 40 percent of all weapons traced by the bureau originated from just 332 gun dealers nationwide. That means that less than 1 percent of the nation's gun stores supply nearly half of all weapons traced in connection with a crime.
"When you see something like that, you either have somebody who is corrupt or have someone with bad business practices," said Joseph Vince, a retired ATF agent and former chief of the bureau's crime gun analysis branch.
Gun shop owners dispute that accusation. Some stores, they say, simply sell a lot of weapons. Others are victims of location: They operate in neighborhoods convenient to the highways smugglers use to run weapons from gun-friendly states to Northern cities.
So far, Congress has sided with the stores. In 2003 it blocked the ATF from revealing information from its tracing database, including the names of the shops that sold the most weapons linked to crime.
Could this mean the Clinton admin hardly ever revoked any dealer licenses? And the Bush Admin is doing far more to revoke the licenses of problem dealers? Guess the AP won't spin it like I did!
Posted by: AJ Lynch | Friday, July 13, 2007 at 10:23 AM