More GOCRA talking points on the Gun Registration bill HR953.

In a 25 Feb 2009 e-mailing, Citizens for a Safer Minnesota said:

“Though the source of that assault weapon in unknown,
under current law, gun shows and internet sites allow
disqualified people to buy pistols and assault weapons with
no background check from any unlicensed seller.”
(emphasis added)

Everything after the bolded statement is PURE SPECULATION. Wishing it so, doesn’t make it so!

Earlier this week, I called the Minneapolis PD’s Weapons Task Force, the ATF’s Minneapolis tracing project, and the ATF’s public information specialist and all confirmed that there is NO EVIDENCE that the weapons being used by criminal gang members to shoot up the 55411 and 55404 neighborhoods in Minneapolis are coming from private sales at either gun shows or the seller’s home in the suburbs. It’s “not happening” one knowledgeable officer said (but not for attribution).

The best CSM can come up with in their recent e-mail is an outdated ATF Survey that reports that less than 0.085% of guns sold in a year (17,000 out of 20 million) were “involved” in ATF investigations of gun shows during 1996-98 period. Since the average number of guns “per investigation” is reported as 130, the reported data CANNOT be for “private sales” by non-dealers because anyone selling that many guns is a “dealer” (see 18 USC §922) and is committing a federal felony with every firearm transfer made to anyone. Conflating these criminal acts with lawful sales results in invalid statistics and erroneous policy conclusions that you are asked to accept as truth. It ain’t so!

The 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment developed by the FBI, ATF, and other law enforcement agencies notes, correctly, that “Criminal gangs commit as much as 80 percent of the crime in many communities (guess where in Minneapolis)” and “Typical gang-related crimes include … weapons trafficking.” Gang members and other criminals don’t buy their guns at private sales, they get them much cheaper and conveniently from their local criminal drug seller.

There is a violence problem in certain Minneapolis neighborhoods. But it isn’t caused by private sales of firearms by Minnesota’s two million gun owners and NO RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON THEM WILL HAVE ANY EFFECT in reducing the carnage in north Minneapolis. This 2008 study by University of Maryland criminologists establishes that California’s private sale restrictions (which HF953 adopts) have no effect. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1278446

So, …
it is clear that what CSM must actually mean by its statement is this: “Though the source of that assault weapon is unknown, we want to punish law-abiding gun owners because we hate guns.”

Actions DO speak louder than words!

Professor Joseph Olson
President, GOCRA