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NYC Stings Out of State Gun Dealers
By
Jen Chung
Published May 16, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 16, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Fifteen more reasons for the NRA to hate Mayor Bloomberg: He (well, NYC) filed a federal lawsuit against 15 out-of-state gun dealers, after conducting a sting operation! The dealers in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia were picked because their guns seem to make their way into NYC crimes. The Mayor's press conference included the undercover video footage of the illegal sales, and the city explained its process:
Over the past six weeks, investigators from the James Mintz Group, a private investigative firm employed by the City, traveled to five states to confirm what gun trace data had already shown probable – that these gun dealers were violating federal laws governing firearms sales. The investigators, in teams of two, entered gun stores and followed a scenario commonly known as “straw purchasing” – where one individual makes all of the inquiries into purchasing the gun, and then the other individual, completely uninvolved in the sale process, fills out the required federal forms to pass the background check. Federal law prohibits licensed dealers from selling firearms to individuals when they have a reasonable belief that the firearm being sold is not for the person who purports to be the purchaser.
The Daily News speaks to some of the gun sellers who were hit with the lawsuit ("Mayor Bloomberg is completely irresponsible in his comments referring to me as a rogue gun dealer."). The NRA told the NY Times they hadn't seen the lawsuit yet, but they were against straw purchases as they are illegal. Last month, Mayor Bloomberg and other mayors met to discuss ways to fight illegal guns.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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