'Straw' gun buyers leave a bloody trail

[lenny7]

http://www.startribune.com/local/101271299.html

'Straw' gun buyers leave a bloody trail

Authorities are cracking down on those who buy guns for criminals who can't. Experts say "gray market" supplies 90 percent of guns used in crimes.

Give Mark Koscielski the slightest indication that the gun you want to buy from him may not be for you, and the sale's over.

"Say a couple comes in, and the male is looking at guns while the female doesn't do anything, and finally he says, 'I will take this gun,'" said the owner of Koscielski's Guns and Ammo in south Minneapolis. "We hand him the federal form, and he will hand it to his girlfriend or wife. Can't do that."

That's how federal authorities want gun sellers to respond to "straw buyers" -- people with no criminal record who buy a gun and then hand it over someone who can't legally buy one because they're a criminal, mentally ill or underage.

Experts estimate that 90 percent of guns used in crimes come through this "gray market," said Bernard Zapor, special agent in charge of the St. Paul field division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

At some point, someone is taking those guns from the lawful market to the unlawful market, he said. Whether it's someone looking to make an extra buck or a girlfriend doing a favor for a boyfriend, it's illegal.

Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight, chairman of the firearms committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said straw buyers are different than gun runners. He said straw buyers don't buy in volume. The vast majority are women, he said, and they do it out of allegiance, not for money.

"Quite frankly," Knight said, "straw purchasers may not be fully knowledgeable about exactly what they're doing and their own liability."

Crackdown underway

Zapor said that Minnesota's straw purchases represent a relatively small share of those made nationally and that most guns bought that way here stay within the state. Therefore, Minnesota is not considered a significant source nationally of straw-bought guns.

Still, authorities say such guns do significant damage within the state. In Minneapolis, which has seen 33 homicides so far this year, most from gunshots, authorities recently announced Project Exile, a push to prosecute more cases of illegal gun possession in federal court, where penalties unusually are tougher.

Zapor said the ownership of every gun from a shooting in Minneapolis is now traced through the straw-buyer chain to the point where the weapon was last purchased legally. The straw buyers they snag face being prosecuted federally, he said.

Lt. Andy Smith heads up the Minneapolis Police Department's Violent Offender Task Force. It has investigated and forwarded several straw-purchase cases to state and federal prosecutors. He said that straw buyers don't fit a pat profile; they're both men and women, younger and older, well-off and poor. What they have in common, he said, is that they're all potential agents of destruction.

"It's fair to say that a prohibited person who wants to acquire a handgun illegally isn't doing it for honorable purposes," Smith said. "Anybody engaged in straw purchasing should expect the end result of that is likely going to be death or great bodily harm to somebody."

Gun shows: a loophole?

Colin Goddard remembers the smell of the gun powder, the shock of the bullets and the wetness of his blood.

Goddard was shot three times in his French classroom at Virginia Tech in April 2007, in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Three years later, there's a YouTube video of him at a gun show in Forest Lake. He buys a semi-automatic pistol for $225 cash.

He doesn't show so much as a driver's license, and he's out the door. But not before the unidentified private seller chuckles and says to Goddard: "There's no tax. There's no paperwork. That's worth something."

Goddard, 24, who is now assistant director of federal legislation for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the Forest Lake seller violated no law. Minnesota's "gun show loophole" exempts private sellers at shows from having to perform background checks.

"Criminals cannot [legally] buy guns, or the mentally ill," Goddard said. "If you don't enforce that at the point of sale, what are you going to do to enforce the law?"

Dylan Klebold, one of the shooters in the 1997 Columbine school massacre, first asked a friend to buy guns for him, Knight said. When she refused, he bought the guns he wanted at a gun show.

A Minnesota bill to close the loophole on the state level never made it out of committee, while a bill by a U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., remains in Congress.

National Rifle Association spokeswoman Rachel Parsons said that most legislation to limit private sales also would prevent family transactions, such as a grandfather trying to give his grandson a gun for his birthday. She adds that less than 1 percent of guns used in crime are acquired at shows.

"Gun shows are not the problem," she said. "Criminals are getting guns from the black market. We need to make sure we're out there enforcing the laws we have, putting criminals in jail and leaving the law-abiding people alone."

Koscielski, the gun shop owner, said that as long as such criminals use straw buyers, shop owners will need to keep watching for telltale signs and reading faces, or face getting shut down.

"I always err on the side of caution," he said. "I have to."

Abby Simons • 612-673-4921

[bstrawse]

Dylan Klebold, one of the shooters in the 1997 Columbine school massacre, first asked a friend to buy guns for him, Knight said. When she refused, he bought the guns he wanted at a gun show.

Information I read this evening stated that the firearms used by Klebold were obtained through straw purchases - I didn't see any mention of gun shows, but admittedly, I didn't dig very deep.
b

[bstrawse]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_ ... l_massacre

In the months prior to the attacks, Harris and Klebold acquired two 9 mm firearms and two 12-gauge shotguns. A rifle and the two shotguns were bought by a friend, Robyn Anderson, at the Tanner Gun Show in December, 1998.[18] Harris and Klebold later bought a handgun from another friend, Mark Manes, for $500. Manes was jailed after the massacre for selling a handgun to a minor,[19] as was Philip Duran, who had introduced the duo to Manes.[20]

Original sources linked in wikipedia article.

So is Knight just making this stuff up to support this gun show bill that he wants?
b

[nyffman]

Possibly that. Possibly, he thinks that if he sucks up to Bloomberg long enough, maybe he could add some more bling as NYC police cheif?

[nyffman]

Still, authorities say such guns do significant damage within the state. In Minneapolis, which has seen 33 homicides so far this year, most from gunshots, authorities recently announced Project Exile, a push to prosecute more cases of illegal gun possession in federal court, where penalties unusually are tougher.

Interesting how they draw those nasty little hazy cartoon pictures in your head. Then, instead of adding any details, they just let the little minds work with those incomplete pictures. I must have missed the part where they gave the alarming statistics that showed the magnitude of the problem.

"Criminals cannot [legally] buy guns, or the mentally ill,"

WTF? I was not aware that we had a problems with criminals buying mentally ill people too?

[Tommy Gun]

"Criminals cannot [legally] buy guns, or the mentally ill,"

WTF? I was not aware that we had a problems with criminals buying mentally ill people too?

Hey, how dare you question him. He was a victim, so it must be true.

[DanM]

Experts estimate that 90 percent of guns used in crimes come through this "gray market," said Bernard Zapor, special agent in charge of the St. Paul field division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

What experts? Where is the data that 'they' are using? Last I checked the FBI did not break down crime data this way, and that's where the BATFE gets it's numbers. I call BS.

Dan

[hammAR]

What experts? Where is the data that 'they' are using?

Anyone that is fearful of guns or what they represent is an expert............
those others that like, own, and respect guns are bigots............

data, what data..............

[FJ540]

I don't like people who don't want me to have my guns. Does that make me a bigot?

[jgalt]

data, what data.............

The data is all around you... Haven't you heard all the reports of school shootings, babies killing each other with their baby-mama's boyfriend's heater, bouncer's killing nice, upstanding citizens for no good reason, etc...? They all happen because of straw purchases. Anyone who can't see all this data is either:

(1) An illiterate coma patient ('cause even the literate coma patients are aware of this data - that's how obvious it is...), or

(2) Some type of "rationalist" who insists on verifiable "proof" of things like this. Stay away from those folks - they are truly dangerous, what with all their talk about "logic", "reason" and "independent thinking"... (look, they even make up these nonsensical words that make no sense at all...)

(no offense meant to illiterate coma patients or "rationalists"... )

[hammAR]

I don't like people who don't want me to have my guns. Does that make me a bigot?

No, it makes you a racist, illiterate coma patient...........

[R.E.T.]

Experts estimate that 90 percent of guns used in crimes come through this "gray market," said Bernard Zapor, special agent in charge of the St. Paul field division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

What experts? Where is the data that 'they' are using? Last I checked the FBI did not break down crime data this way, and that's where the BATFE gets it's numbers. I call BS.

Dan

Chief Bling and the BATF "Data, we don't need no stinking data."

[Seismic Sam]

Isn't it interesting how "Zapor" rhymes prefectly with "vapor", which I think indicates something about Zapor's "professional" opinion and his "data"

[xd ED]

"...Zapor said the ownership of every gun from a shooting in Minneapolis is now traced through the straw-buyer chain to the point where the weapon was last purchased legally. The straw buyers they snag face being prosecuted federally, he said...."

This statement appears to me to be such utter BS, that I cannot understand the point Zapor is attempting make about investigative procedures. Maybe I'm missing something, or don't fully understand transfer/ sale laws, but: Can there be more than one 'straw buyer' (after the initial purchase from an FFL)? I suspect most of the guns that get used in shootings aren't transfered back to a FFL holder when thug #1 needs cash, and decides to sell his .25 to thug #2, but then what do I know about street commerce in the hood...
I guess the strib needed something to churn the waters; given the recent decision not to charge the bouncer at Grumpy's certainly isn't what they wanted to report.

On the plus side, this article caused me to renew my NRA membership(feeling like a dipstick for letting it lapse...)