BATF to Crack Down on Suspect Gun Dealers
From the Maryland Citizens' Defense League alerts.
This is akin to cracking down on car dealers that sell cars to speeders,
DUIs, get-aways, ad nauseaum....
In what it calls its most aggressive campaign in its 30-year history,
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is going after corrupt gun
dealers who make firearms available to criminals and juveniles.
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The bureau claims that just 1.2 percent of federally-licensed firearms
dealers -- numbering 1,020 -- originally sold 57 percent of the weapons
used in crimes.
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The suspect dealers will be subjected to intensified inspections and some
of them will be required to start providing records for the first time
of sales of used guns -- not just new weapons.
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Dealers who claim that many of their guns were stolen or disappeared will
be required to account for sales in a fuller and more prompt manner.
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Licenses of the 31 percent of dealers who say they have not sold any guns
in the past year -- a possible indication that they are actually selling
to illegal gun traffickers for a higher price -- could be revoked.
The bureau will also provide a list, to any manufacturer who asks for it,
of that company's guns that have been traced to a crime in the previous
year -- along with the name of the dealer who sold the gun.
A spokesman for the National Rifle Association dismissed the announcement
as a publicity stunt that would do nothing to reduce violent crime.
Source: Fox Butterfield, "Firearms Agency Intensifies Scrutiny of Suspect
Dealers," New York Times, February 4, 2000.
For more on Liability and Guns, see NCPA (National center for Policy
Analysis) page on Self-Defense
and Gun-Control
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