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Gun shops that sell the most guns used in crime revealed, usatoday.com proudly proclaims. Let’s be clear about who’s on The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive’s “Demand 2” list and why…
The criteria for being included on the list is relatively simple: at least 25 guns traced to a crime over a year that were purchased within the past three years. It’s known in the law enforcement lingo as “time to crime.” A short period is an indicator of the illegal trafficking of guns.
That word doesn’t mean what they want it to mean
The word “trafficking” is intentionally misleading. Legal guns sales do not constitute “gun trafficking.” crowdercriminalfirm.com:
Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 933) states that it is illegal for anyone other than a licensed firearm dealer, manufacturer, or importer to engage in business related to transporting, receiving, manufacturing, or otherwise dealing in firearms in matters related to interstate or foreign commerce.
Every legal gun dealer in the U.S. is a registered Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL).
They must abide by federal regulations for all gun purchases, including but not limited to record keeping.
Customers must fill out a federal form 4473, truthfully, on pain of prosecution, and pass an FBI background check.
A Demand 2 Far?
Any gun store or gun store failing to abide by the law for even a single sale is subject to fines, revocation of their license and potential criminal prosecution.
None of the 1300 federally licensed gun dealers ”targeted” by the ATF Demand 2 program – representing three percent of the total number of licensed dealers – stands accused of selling firearms illegally. And yet…
All of the 1300 gun dealers on the list are now tarred by the implication that they’re contributing to America’s “gun violence epidemic.” Which, let’s be fair, they are. But not directly.
“Crime guns” are stolen guns
The vast majority of firearms used during the commission of a crime are stolen from legal owners after legal purchase.
Most of the 11 percent of “crime guns” in the study above (that weren’t stolen) were “straw purchases” – guns bought by someone who wasn’t a criminal for a criminal.
“Straw purchases” (example here) are a crime. Question: how is a gun dealer supposed to know/prevent the sale when a buyer meets the legal criteria? The “smell test.”
“I personally train my 24 employees to look for straw sales,” Mark Tosh, president of a chain of Virginia gun stores, told USA Today, “and everyone is empowered to terminate a sale.”
Correlation ≠ Causation
Tosh highlights the false reasoning promoted by “naming and shaming” gun dealers on the ATF’s Demand 2 list.
“Any retailer that sells more than 2,000 guns annually would appear on the list. It’s the law of averages.”
While anti-gun groups are happy with the defamatory nature of the Demand 2 list’s publication and USA Today’s anti-gun animus (complete with a crime scene photo highlighting a Kentucky gun dealer), the ATF gets it.
“A number of factors, including geography, sales volume, secondary market transfers by an original lawful purchaser, and the level of sophistication of firearm traffickers, may be involved in a traced crime gun,” ATF spokeswoman Kristina Mastropasqua wrote in an email.
The Truth About Licensed Gun Dealers
Implying that licensed gun dealers and manufacturers (also named in the article) are responsible for firearms-related crime is like suggesting that car dealers and carmakers are responsible for drunk driving.
Equally, USA Today’s focus on FFL’s is like a drunk looking for his car keys under a streetlamp – simply because the light’s better.
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