Another active shooter armed stand off in progress.

If it was the guns all along why didn't they leave once they got them?

I recommend you ask El Chappo and his Cartel thugs that question. They are in fact the leaders in the Western Hemisphere's Black Market illegal arms trade. Of which, most end up on the streets of cities the likes of Chicago, Miami, St. Louis, Detroit etc etc.....

Your average Chicago gang banger is not toting an assault rifle.

So an Indiana resident can buy 50 guns and then take them to Chicago or give/sell them to someone who will take them to Chicago for sale.

Your average Chicago gang banger is not toting an assault rifle.

Agent Mulham replied, “Criminals get guns from a lot sources.”

The three agents then explained that about 80 percent of the crime guns found in New York City come from out of state. That makes sense; after all, New Jersey and Connecticut are within commuting distance of New York City. They also said the average “time to crime” (the time it takes for a gun sold from a gun dealer to make it to a criminal’s hands and then to a crime scene) is 12 to 13 years in New York City. “In that time a handgun could easily go through four or more owners,” said Agent Mulham.

I asked, “So basically the guns seized at crime scenes aren’t leading back to gun stores, but to thefts or other sales?”

They nodded agreement.

This made me refer to the ATF’s statistics to get them to explain what’s behind some shocking numbers. I noted that the ATF estimates that 190,342 guns were lost or stolen in the U.S. in 2012. Most of those guns (177,898) were lost or stolen from private residences and vehicles, but 5,762 firearms were reported as being stolen from Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) dealers—gun stores, pawn shops, and so on. The thing is, though those numbers are alarming, the ATF officially says the number of guns stolen from private hands is a guestimate based on different sources of data. The ATF’s “2012 Summary: Firearms Reported Lost and Stolen” report explains, “This is raw data that has not been substantively reviewed by the FBI, has not been screened for duplicates or other data entry issues, and does not account for firearms that were subsequently found or recovered.” The ATF does, however, say the number of guns stolen from FFLs is a good statistic because in 1994 Congress required FFLs to report the theft or loss of any firearm from their inventories to both the ATF and to local police within 48 hours of discovery.

When I’d previously asked the ATF about the number of stolen guns, ATF Agent Tim Graten, acting deputy chief of public affairs, said, “I really don’t have a good explanation. If we suspect the guns are being sold illegally we’ll start an investigation. There are instances where we’ve revoked Federal Firearms Licenses. Part of that figure is likely from bad record keeping—our agents work with people who have FFLs to get their records in compliance.”

“So,” I asked, “what’s going on behind these numbers?”

Agent Curtis said, “We have a small staff here in New York and we do a lot more than overseeing FFLs. We’re also responsible for monitoring alcohol, tobacco and explosives. In my particular oversight area we have about 1,000 FFLs to check up on. Some are big stores, such as Gander Mountain outlets, and others are small gun shops.”

Agent Curtis then handed me a printout. It was an example of a database gun dealers are required to keep. The gun stores have to maintain up-to-date records of the firearm’s makes, models, serial numbers and other criteria in their store and those they’ve sold. He explained, “Most do a good job, but the record keeping of a few is less than ideal. We work with them and if they’re consistently not keeping comprehensible records we can start an investigation and possibly revoke a Federal Firearms License.”

“What you’re saying is some of those missing guns are really just record-keeping errors?” I asked.

“Some of them.”

HighDesertDJ

Trad climber

Dec 11, 2015 - 06:46am PT
The Chief thinks that rap videos and video games are documentaries.