The case for state regulation of gun dealers
Monday, Jun 4, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times editorial…
Ninety percent of guns used in criminal acts can be traced to just 5 percent of gun dealers. These so-called, “Bad Apple” dealers enable criminals to circumvent gun laws created to keep firearms out of dangerous hands, putting communities at risk for violence. […]
When a gun buyer gets somebody else to fill out his or her paperwork, that’s called a “straw purchase.” This can put guns in the hands of people who are legally prohibited from owning them. Police say penalties for violating Illinois’ “lost and stolen” law, which helps address straw purchases, are too weak.
Last year, Chicago police took 8,952 illegal guns off the street, and this year so far the police have recovered more than 3,400 guns. We would like to believe it has made a difference. Chicago this year has suffered 52 fewer murders and 229 fewer shootings when compared to the same time last year. […]
A bill approved by the Legislature on Tuesday — with bipartisan support — and now headed to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk holds the promise of being a small but important part of the solution. The bill goes after the scourge of “bad apple” gun dealers by requiring state certification of gun shops.
* But, you say, the feds already regulate gun dealers. Well, kinda…
As they inspect the nation’s gun stores, federal investigators regularly find violations of the law, ranging from minor record-keeping errors to illegal sales of firearms. In the most serious cases, like a sale of a gun to a prohibited buyer, inspectors often recommend that gun dealers lose their licenses.
But that rarely happens. Senior officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regularly overrule their own inspectors, allowing gun dealers who fail inspections to keep their licenses even after they were previously warned to follow the rules, according to interviews with more than half a dozen current and former law enforcement officials and a review of more than 100 inspection reports.
One store was cited for failing to conduct background checks before selling a gun. Another store owner told investigators he actively tried to circumvent gun laws. One threatened an A.T.F. officer, and another sold a gun to a customer who identified as a felon. All were previously cited by the A.T.F. In each instance, supervisors downgraded recommendations that the stores’ licenses be revoked and instead let them stay open.
Of about 11,000 inspections of licensed firearm dealers in the year starting in October 2016, more than half were cited for violations. Less than 1 percent of all inspections resulted in the loss of a license.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:11 am:
–Ninety percent of guns used in criminal acts can be traced to just 5 percent of gun dealers.–
I would think 95% of gun dealers would want that 5% to get scrootened, as Daley used to say. They’re giving them all a bad name.
- Perrid - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:18 am:
wordslinger, in the article they quote a few other dealers who do say that the few egregious violators should give up their licenses. There is a question of where you draw the line, but I would say it is somewhere below where they are currently drawing it.
- Texas Red - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:23 am:
as for bullet no.5 in the Sun-times..” a loophole in federal gun laws exempts unlicensed sellers from having to perform any background check whatsoever before selling a firearm.”
Illinois like 17 other states has no so called “gun show loophole” . It more correctly should be called the right to engage in private firearms sales.
- Occam - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:29 am:
Simple question: How is a gun shop, at the point of sale, supposed to divine the FUTURE actions of customer who may give the purchased gun over to a criminal?
- ArchPundit - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:36 am:
===How is a gun shop, at the point of sale, supposed to divine the FUTURE actions of customer who may give the purchased gun over to a criminal?
When the moron straw purchaser says that is what they are doing and the sale is still made. Let me be clear that the majority of dealers would not make the sale and most would probably report it. In that 5% they often make the sale and similar sales that are violations of the law.
If you are running a clean business, guns you sell will be used in a crime sometimes. But when a large number of guns used in crimes come from a small number of dealers it is almost always because the dealer is not following the law.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:37 am:
“Simple question: How is a gun shop, at the point of sale, supposed to divine the FUTURE actions of customer who may give the purchased gun over to a criminal?”
Golly-jee. A gun shop owner would have to be Nostradamus to predict that such actions could lead to their firearms falling into the hands of some bad actors.
– MrJM
- wordslinger - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:45 am:
–How is a gun shop, at the point of sale, supposed to divine the FUTURE actions of customer who may give the purchased gun over to a criminal?–
Ask Chuck’s. I bet you they’re smarter than you give them credit for, and know their market.
- Occam - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:52 am:
==If you are running a clean business, guns you sell will be used in a crime sometimes. But when a large number of guns used in crimes come from a small number of dealers it is almost always because the dealer is not following the law.=
So, they’re passing a new law to enforce existing laws that some gun shops are, apparently, not already following?
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:52 am:
Occam, try not to be so deliberately obtuse.
- Stuntman Bob's Brother - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:54 am:
==Ask Chuck’s==
I don’t doubt your assessment, Word. But what boggles my mind is how the 5% are able to keep their licenses? It would seem that a motivated prosecutor could find a way to have them shut down if their actions are so egregious. What’s the bigger story? Are they being “protected” by fat cats? How many politicians can the 5% fit into their pockets?
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 11:56 am:
===But what boggles my mind is how the 5% are able to keep their licenses?===
NYT makes it pretty clear. The folks at the top of the fed bureaucracy are way too lenient.
- Last Bull Moose - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 12:37 pm:
It sounds like the problem is not with the structure of the federal gun laws but with their enforcement. Can the state pass laws replicating the federal laws and require copies of all forms filed with the feds be filed with the state? This would not increase the paperwork for gun dealers but would allow the state to enforce the laws. The problem dealers could be identified, targeted for additional inspections by state officials, and shut down if found guilty of a pattern of violations.
- A Jack - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 1:12 pm:
It is more of a state’s duty than a federal duty to regulate gun dealers. The state already has jurisdiction over gun ownership which is a constitutional right. So why not gun sales which are just a business transaction?
The state already regulates many industries that have far less potential of being a factor in the harm of its citizens.
- the Patriot - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 1:17 pm:
The state still has the ability to prosecute the 5% under state law. Straw purchases are illegal. The problem is law enforcement and prosecutors don’t place high value on prosecuting them. We are again going to force the 95% of law abiding dealers to try and punish 5% we know already breaking the law.
The other harsh reality is 70% of the murders in Chicago go unsolved so there is no data on where a majority of the worst criminals get their guns.
- Low Rider - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 1:29 pm:
** Ninety percent of guns used in criminal acts can be traced to just 5 percent of gun dealers. **
what they don’t tell you is how much time has passed from sale to recovery in a crime - isn’t it something like 11 years ? When Chicago has no gun shops, of course the original point of sale is going to be in a store close to the city. Garbage data.
- Demoralized - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 1:39 pm:
==Less than 1 percent of all inspections resulted in the loss of a license.==
I wonder what those people did to lose their license? Based on the article it would seem you can do just about anything and get away with it.
- Lowdrag - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 1:50 pm:
This will prevent lawbreakers how?
- Amalia - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 1:56 pm:
1) the ATF has not been given enough money to inspect all regularly. gee, I wonder who pushed that?
2) when they do inspect the enforcement is pretty lenient
3) just do the darned paperwork, sellers. keep your paperwork, check what is necessary, be responsible. then you won’t have to worry. about whatever agency inspects you. you sell a lethal product. comply with the rules.
- Demoralized - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 2:02 pm:
==This will prevent lawbreakers how?==
That sort of argument is and continues to be the most ridiculous argument ever made. It’s the old “why have laws if people are going to break them” argument.
- DuPage Bard - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 2:51 pm:
90% of all gun crimes came from just 5% of stores.
Didn’t the Sun Times write a story about 2 months back saying 66% of all guns confiscated in the city used for crimes were purchased out of state. So how is it 66% of all gun crime guns come from out of state but at the same time 90% of all gun crime guns come from 5% of the gun stores in Illinois?
- FormerParatrooper - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 3:26 pm:
” One store was cited for failing to conduct background checks before selling a gun. Another store owner told investigators he actively tried to circumvent gun laws. One threatened an A.T.F. officer, and another sold a gun to a customer who identified as a felon. All were previously cited by the A.T.F. In each instance, supervisors downgraded recommendations that the stores’ licenses be revoked and instead let them stay open.”
I think there are some supervisors that should be sent to unemployment. I understand using discretion when you evaluate mistakes, but when it appears these are malicious actions meant to ignore the law, the only discretion required is how to have the bad actors charged.
As far as the State being involved, they have enough issues with firearm enforcement as it is and with that track record I am not convinced the State can offer anything to remedy the situation.
- Touré's Latte - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 3:54 pm:
So making an illegal act more illegal will cause the lax and sloppy enforcement to do what again?
- Tequila Mockingbird - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 4:05 pm:
As I recall, the illegal straw buyer in Chicago that was arrested and charged and plead guilty to multiple violations was released with court supervision and no hard time. Clearly, there is no interest in actual enforcement, just more layers of bureaucracy oh and fees of course.
- Anon - Monday, Jun 4, 18 @ 9:43 pm:
Time for Chicago to split away from the rest of the state.
- Todd - Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 7:13 am:
Word, sometime you just leave me scratching my head.
18 months ago Chucks had 13 ATF agents show up unannounced for an inspection. Took about 3 weeks. The biggest complaint they had was that derringers should be listed as pistols on paperwork — something that leaves us all asking why, because they are not pistols in the true sense, but its their paperwork.
Midwest another favorite whipping post of he gun controllers was inspected last November. In neither case were any sanctions or violations reported.
So why don’t you quit with the adhominom attacks? They follow the law, pass their inspections and are not written up much less cited as being in non-compliance. but you and others just harp on the BS trace data which has non context to what it means or doesn’t mean.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jun 5, 18 @ 7:24 pm:
Gee Todd, I’m so ashamed. Forgive me.
You know where the thousands of illegal guns come from that Chicago cops seize off the streets every year.
As a good, non-Fascist-Russia-money-laundering-citizen, you want to fill them in on it.
Seriously, you’re the NRA guy, thousands of illegal guns, you must know where they come from, just because…. sad, effete hobby.