NRA News Downplays Relationship Between Weak Gun Laws And Firearms Trafficking

[SecularMotion]

During an appearance on NRA News, Jim Wallace, the executive director of Gun Owners' Action League, the state firearms association of Massachusetts, suggested that strict gun laws did nothing to curb gun violence in his home state of Massachusetts. Wallace, who is also a candidate in this year's National Rifle Association Board of Directors elections, went on to deny that crime guns are trafficked into Massachusetts from states with weaker laws.

To the contrary, trace data made available by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) indicates that the majority of crime guns traced in Massachusetts originate from states with lax gun laws.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/09/17/nra-news-downplays-relationship-between-weak-gu/189946

[bongbong]

1. Guns!

Guns guns guns!

Such peaceful tools! Great for protecting you if you're too scared to leave the house otherwise!

[Reasonable_Argument]

2. Yep

Cowering in fear daily. I had to work an event for work last week where I couldn't carry. It was only your words that gave me the strengh to carry on. Thank you bongbong.

[bongbong]

6. Hey!

I'm glad you're able to admit your fear.

Try carrying a Teddy Bear instead of your gun if you still need a Security Blanket to go out in public.

[Reasonable_Argument]

7. Do you have a brand you recommend?

I hear good things about Vermont Teddybear

[bongbong]

8. No

But if you wandered into any children's store and told them you were scared to death every time you left your "Fortress Of Solitude"/bunker, I'm sure they could sell you the right Teddy.

[Reasonable_Argument]

9. Does it have to be a teddy bear?

What if I want a different animal?

[holdencaufield]

25. Why do you even bother ...

... feeding a troll that will never have anything to contribute?

If you don't feed it, it will die from starvation.

[glacierbay]

27. That's exactly why I don't even respond to him anymore.

Not worth my time IMHO.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

10. Vermont Teddybear

Probably a good option. I hear you can also carry a concealed teddy-bear in Vermont without a permit.
For that matter, I bet you could conceal a carry gun IN a teddy-bear in Vermont without a permit.

[Remmah2]

3. What makes alleged weak gun laws worse is when authorities are lax in enforcing them.

And when they're not enforcing them they're breaking them.

[Atypical Liberal]

4. Yes, freedom for good people means freedom for bad people, too

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take away from this article.

Yes, when you have a society with relatively free access to firearms both good and bad people will get a hold of them.

So?

[friendly_iconoclast]

5. They forgot to mention that the #1 source for crime guns in Massachusetts... is Massachusetts

There were almost 3X as many guns traced from MA (351) than the next nearest state, New Hampshire (133)

Yep, it's those lax gun laws in other states that are causing the problem!

[DanTex]

11. As the data shows, most of the guns used in MA crimes come from out of state.

So, yes, it is the out of state guns that are the problem, or at least 2/3rds of the problem. The fact that the out-of-state guns are spread over several states so that no single state is the source of as many guns as MA is pretty much irrelevant.

[friendly_iconoclast]

13. Talk to me when wrist-slap sentences for trafficking like this one quit happening:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/09/former_western_oregon_universi.html

Former Western Oregon University football player sentenced in gun trafficking case

A former Western Oregon University football player convicted in a gun trafficking case was sentenced on Wednesday to six months of home detention and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

Eric Lemar Spivey, who pleaded guilty in May to violating the Brady Law, joined former teammate Billy Darnell Ellington in purchasing at least 48 firearms -- mostly 9mm, .40-caliber and .45-caliber handguns -- from gun dealers in the Willamette Valley towns of Salem, Dallas and Springfield.

The government charged them with lying on federal firearms purchase forms by saying they were the actual buyers of the guns; in fact, they were supplying them to associates in Stockton, Calif. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in court papers that the men had loose affiliations with the Sierra Vista, Spring Street and Flyboys street gangs in the Stockton area, where they played high school ball.

Ellington was sentenced in June to one year and one day in federal prison, making him eligible for roughly 100 days off his sentence.

ADDED ON EDIT: After Googling "guns trafficking sentenced" and seeing the usual sentences handed out, it would appear that the judge is either quite the WOU football fan
or these two mopes ratted out their buyers.

[gejohnston]

17. hopefully it is the latter

If there were ever a case where I would support a mandatory minimum

[gejohnston]

15. if you go through each state and territory,

that is pretty much the case. It doesn't show how they got to MA, or how long they were in MA before being used in a crime. It only shows the last state a 4473 was filled out. The more important statistic is "time to crime". If there are a large number of newer guns coming from a specific area or group of FFLs, the ATF can use that to start looking for straw buyers.
What I can't find is the "time to crime" means age of the gun or the last time a 4473 was filled out (used guns at a pawn shot for example).
http://www.atf.gov/statistics/trace-data/2011-trace-data.html

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

12. I'm curious

What is it you expect to accomplish with your daily plops?

[SecularMotion]

14. I expect to receive inane comments from clueless gun nuts

[gejohnston]

16. so far I'm seeing more

reasonably well thought out comments from well informed gun nuts.

[SecularMotion]

18. You see well informed gun nuts

where I see NRA shills.

[Clames]

20. That means you just need to see your eye care professional.

Sooner the better.

[gejohnston]

21. You see informed gun control advocates

I see Brady shills who are not even informed on basic issues.

[holdencaufield]

26. Read from the top line, please ...

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

22. Well considering...

...that most of the gun nuts are on your side of the fence and in light of their typical responses, I'd have to characterize you as satisfied.

[virginia mountainman]

19. odd, we don't have weak gun laws....NT

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

23. If you'd like to...

...have weak gun laws just google "virginia weak gun laws". I'm sure some informed journalist has decided you do.

[jody]

24. Why are crime rates in states with weak gun laws lower than states with strong gun laws as your OP

implies?