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July 27, 2004
Bad News for the Feds is Good News for Us
Here's some good news disguised as bad news:
More than 7,000 people who should have been barred from buying guns were able to buy them anyway in 2002 and 2003, according to a Justice Department review released Monday. . . .
Federal law stipulates that gun buyers might have to wait up to three business days before receiving their weapons; under a system of instant FBI (news - web sites) background checks instituted in 1998, most sales are approved much quicker. Of the 17 million gun purchases in the last two years, 122,000 were denied because of the checks.
If the background check isn't completed within the period, however, the law says the purchase must go through. In 2002 and 2003, there were a combined 7,030 "delayed denial" cases in which the FBI found that a prohibited person was able to get a gun after the period expired, according to the review by Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives retrieved the weapon in 97 percent of those cases. That sometimes took a year or longer, ample time for an illegal buyer to use the gun to commit a crime.
Fortunately for us (most of the time), the government is inept. Their solution to the number of illegal gun purchases?
ATF is seeking more money from Congress for its firearms investigations
Oh, yes. One more thing that ATF discovered:
"We were also told that `bad guys' generally do not purchase their firearms through legitimate dealers" but instead do so illegally, at unregulated gun shows or flea markets or through other means, the review said.
Gee, where have we heard that before? From "gun nuts," perhaps?
Posted by Mike Tennant at July 27, 2004 11:02 AM