I saw this first linked at Alphecca. I found the report here. I've begun reading it and it is quite transparent on its intent. It's trying to look like a scientific study, but it ignores some really big issues.
First, I don't find any discussion that points out that all the activities they discuss are already illegal at the federal level, and in most cases are illegal at the state level as well. They also don't discuss the issue of ATF enforcement which should be the real issue if the database is being utilized properly. They do discuss the number of investigations the ATF has made, but fail to discuss the numbers for prosecutions or convictions. You'd think if you really wanted to stop gun trafficking, that is where you'd really start complaining.
Next is the usual distortion of what a dealer is. They begin with the usual gun-show loophole discussion about unlicensed gun dealers. Oddly, a dealer is required to be licensed by federal and most state laws, so there is no such thing as an unlicensed dealer. They dance around this in other sections as well.
I couldn't find, but will look some more, to find analysis of the states with the weakest gun laws and how they compare their "export" of crime guns to the largest "exporters." That would have been telling if their contention is accurate that local gun laws would lesson gun trafficking.
I did find the table comparing gun imports to exports. Interesting that New Hampshire is on the top of the list, though it isn't one of the top 10 trafficking states, but it is right next door to Massachusetts which has a fairly high importation rate. By this report's implication, NH is the one at fault here. Couldn't possibly be that the MA crimials have cars and drive to another state to commit a crime. Wouldn't that be an interesting bit of a study as to who is committing the crime.
Well, there are a lot of other complaints, but I'll wait until I have time to finish the report.
First, I don't find any discussion that points out that all the activities they discuss are already illegal at the federal level, and in most cases are illegal at the state level as well. They also don't discuss the issue of ATF enforcement which should be the real issue if the database is being utilized properly. They do discuss the number of investigations the ATF has made, but fail to discuss the numbers for prosecutions or convictions. You'd think if you really wanted to stop gun trafficking, that is where you'd really start complaining.
Next is the usual distortion of what a dealer is. They begin with the usual gun-show loophole discussion about unlicensed gun dealers. Oddly, a dealer is required to be licensed by federal and most state laws, so there is no such thing as an unlicensed dealer. They dance around this in other sections as well.
I couldn't find, but will look some more, to find analysis of the states with the weakest gun laws and how they compare their "export" of crime guns to the largest "exporters." That would have been telling if their contention is accurate that local gun laws would lesson gun trafficking.
I did find the table comparing gun imports to exports. Interesting that New Hampshire is on the top of the list, though it isn't one of the top 10 trafficking states, but it is right next door to Massachusetts which has a fairly high importation rate. By this report's implication, NH is the one at fault here. Couldn't possibly be that the MA crimials have cars and drive to another state to commit a crime. Wouldn't that be an interesting bit of a study as to who is committing the crime.
Well, there are a lot of other complaints, but I'll wait until I have time to finish the report.
No comments:
Post a Comment