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Originally Posted by MarineHawk
Okay, I'm a huge opponent of gun control - really huge; been a member of the NRA since I was 12; would never, ever vote for anyone running for public office who had an anti-2nd amendment agenda. However, I don't see this story as terribly tragic. Maybe I'm missing something. The law is that you can't make straw purchases. Even the NRA apparently supports that position. Some people follow the law. Some intentionaly disregard it (most, more likely out of profit motive than some patriotic reason). I don't have a lot of sympathy for the latter when they get caught.
Part of the reason it's not a big deal to me is that you can practically speaking buy a firearm for someone else for a legitimate purpose, such as a gift, by simply buying it for yourself and then gifting it. So, the law may just be a technicality (maybe not - I don't know the details), but if a customer is stupid enough to flaunt the fact that he's making a straw purchase and the "purchaser" isn't even paying for it; the FFL holder who executes the sale, while knowing all of this, is just asking for trouble.
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So, it's not tragic that the city of New York hire a private firm to investigate gun sales by stores in other states. To then further build a case to sue those dealers based on that gathering of evidence which may or may not be very clean.
Not to mention, the point of it being to "stop the flow of guns into the city" but to base it on a single orchestrated gun purchase is ludicrous.
I'm sorry but it's too stupid to think that straw purchases occur in the manner portrayed. I realize that criminals have a tendancy to be really dumb but all he has to do is go in pick out the gun and then send in the buyer and the shop owner is unaware. Prosecute the original purchaser and make it a felony, don't make the gun shop owner place judgement on the straw purchase when it's not so cut and dry.