More factual inaccuracies
excerpt from linked article:
Interstate firearms trafficking flourishes, in part, because states regulate firearm sales differently and there is no federal limitation on the number of guns that an individual may purchase at any one time.
1
True and legal. There is no Federal law limiting the amount of single firearm purchases an individual is allowed to make across state lines. No one proposes such legislation (honestly) and Americans don't support it, although they do favor certain restrictions on who may purchase firearms legally.
excerpt:
About half of all Americans oppose stricter gun control laws, a larger segment of the population than those who support tighter controls on guns,
according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/politics/gun-control-poll-americans/index.html
excerpt from linked article:
More than half a million firearms are stolen each year in the United States and more than half of stolen firearms are handguns, many of which are subsequently sold illegally.2
Correct. So what's the point? If the firearms are stolen, and sold illegally, it's all illegal right? So who's for making it legal?
Ans: No one.
(It was alleged ATF is aware of who is stealing and selling these weapons illegally...but no proof was offered)
excerpt from linked article:
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) issued a comprehensive report in 2000 detailing firearms trafficking investigations involving more than 84,000 diverted firearms, finding that federally licensed firearms dealers were associated with the largest number of trafficked guns – over 40,000 – and concluded that the dealers’ “access to large numbers of firearms makes them a particular threat to public safety when they fail to comply with the law.”
So here we have ATF with knowledge on how some of these illegal weapons are making it onto the streets. But the allegation is that ATF is providing cover for these types of Dealer sales since they know about them. Is this proof of ATF's complicity in these sales?
No!
It is evidence that ATF lacks proper enforcement mechanisms to stop these types of transactions. It is proof of ATF's lack of enforcement and follow up on how these
illegal purchases are getting past laws on the books. That's the issue, why isn't ATF able to stop these sales which are illegal?
excerpt from linked article:
According to ATF, one percent of federally licensed firearms dealers are responsible for selling almost 60 percent of the guns that are found at crime scenes and traced to dealers.
This statement leaves out many variables. If 1% of licensed firearms dealers are selling 60% of the guns found at crime scenes, why aren't those sales illegal? Where is the connection between the illegal sales and the legitimate sales from licensed gun sellers? If the guns are traced to legal dealers, why are they now considered illegal? Who resold the guns illegally? Aren't those the criminals, and not the licensed gun dealers? Lots of holes unplugged in that statement.
excerpt from linked article:
Nearly a quarter of ATF gun trafficking investigations involved stolen firearms and were associated with over 11,000 trafficked firearms – including 10% percent of the investigations which involved guns stolen from residences.5
Again, all of this is illegal. Licensed firearms dealers or private owners are not stealing their own guns! Legitimate gun dealers are not selling their guns illegally. These are stolen weapons, which makes re-selling them illegal. What new law would make these crimes any more illegal than they already are, unless you restriict ALL gun sales from legal as well as illegal dealers? Where is the ATF complicit in any of this? Private gun owners who sell their guns privately? It's not illegal.
excerpt from linked article:
ATF’s limited compliance inspections between 2008 and 2010 found that over 62,000 firearms were missing from licensees’ inventories with no record of sale.6The Bureau also identified over 16,000 firearms that had disappeared from gun manufacturers’ inventories without explanation between 2009 and the middle of 2011.7
Here the authors admit there is a problem with illegal gun sales, however it's not with the legitimate dealers it's with the ATF's inspections and compliance procedures. It's been pointed out in the article that many of these weapons are stolen. Could that be the reason for the lack of records on sales? If 16,000 firearms are "disappearing" from gun manufactuers inventories, why are they included in the operations of legitimate gun sellers? If they're being stolen, why are the gun manufacturers being blamed for that? Why isn't ATF tracking down the thieves, or trying to help manufacuters insure accuracy of their inventories instead of accusing them of losing the guns or outright selling them illegally?
excerpt from linked article:
A 1997 U.S. Department of Justice survey found that 8.4% of state prison inmates who used or possessed a firearm during the offense for which they were incarcerated obtained the gun from the illegal market.8
Again, it is criminal and illegal behavior being reported here. How are gun sellers comitting a crime selling weapons legally? If the weapons being used to committ crimes are being bought illegally, that too is a crime. No law will make either activity any more illegal than it already is. Law abiding gun owners are not the problem here, criminals are. Yet the effort is to restrict the ability of law abiding gun owners to buy as many weapons as they need or want. Why? They're not breaking trhe law, criminals are!
excerpt from linked article:
Random inspections by ATF have uncovered that a large percentage of dealers violate federal law, and that percentage is growing.9
Once again, if it's illegal why is ATF allowing it? What percentage of dealers violate the law? How are they doing it? The authors are claiming most of the illegal weapons are already stolen or simply "missing" so are they claiming a lot of them are also being sold illegally? Where is the proof they are being sold on the Black market by legitimate dealers? How can it be both, and who's selling them illegally if ATF knows that's what's happening to them? Why not stop those sales or prosecute the law breakers?
excerpt from linked article:
An estimated 40% of the guns acquired in the U.S. annually come from unlicensed sellers who are not required by federal law to conduct background checks on gun purchasers.
First this is an estimate. It is not against the law for private individuals to sell weapons to one another. If unlicensed dealers are selling guns, that activity is already illegal? If unlicensed sellers are selling to criminals and they are selling stolen weapons, that is also illegal. But you cannot both blame licensed sellers for selling legally, then turn around and blame them for all unlicensed illegal sales which is what the article suggests. Criminals are to blame for sales of illegal guns, and they are the reason why law abiding citizens need access to legal sales of firearms to defend themselves against criminals who have no respect for the laws already on the books regulating the sales of firearms.
excerpt from linked article:
Nearly 80% of Mexico’s illegal firearms and most recovered crime guns in major Canadian cities are imported illegally from the U.S.11
If this is true, again ATF should be cracking down on it. It is already illegal. Amazingly, the authors didn't mention our own U.S. Government selling weapons to Mexican Drug cartels
illegally during the past adminsitration. Not a word of that.
link:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430153/fast-furious-obama-first-scandal
The authors' claim also gives more evidence of our need to secure our borders to stop both the influx of illegal weapons as well as illegal activity such as drug running from Mexico. Leftists generally oppose all measures to increase our border security including construction of a wall to restrict access to the US from Mexico by criminals and illegal aliens.
So this article was linked by this poster I suppose as proof that ATF and private gun dealers are involved in the sale and distribution even proliferation of illegal weapons avaialble in the U.S. as this poster suggested in this thread:
quote:
"I wouldn’t be surprised to see some type of connection between manufacturers and second level dealers.
I'm sure there is some corruption within the ATF as well. It seems like we haven’t made a dent in these transactions, IMO".
If this is the poster's position, this article did not prove it and no other proof was offered in support of that statement. The article correctly pointed out that there is a massive amount of illegal activity involving gun sales...many of them stolen... but it did not point out anything complicit with the ATF except their lax or non existent enforcement or tracing mechanisms.
Americans do support reasonable restrictions on the sales of firearms, and that's why we have laws making some sales illegal. However this poster and the rest of the Left cannot admit that what they
really would prefer, is very limited use of ownership of all weapons and perhaps an outright ban on selling them to private individual unless you can demonstrate a law enforcement or some other type of need to have one. Simply excercising your second ammendment rights is not good enough for most gun control Leftists because they admit we do not actually need the second ammendment and they would rather see it eliminated or replaced with some other form of gun regulations.
This they will never admit to though, and they will never run on it because they know they would lose both the argument and the election because of it. So they try to appeal to our emotions, or lie to make us think guns are floating all around out there illegally with no controls on them so we have to stop all of it...inlcuding the legal sales.
That was the objective of this fraudulent article, and the poster who pinned it to this board.
![[eyeroll]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/rolleye/rolleye0011.r191677.gif "Eye roll [eyeroll]")
