Posted on 03/24/2006 12:38:44 AM PST by neverdem
'Kitchen table' dealers -- those operating out of their homes -- are getting squeezed between federal laws and local zoning codes. The impact on illegal gun-trafficking is debatable.
WASHINGTON -- In a little-noticed victory for gun control advocates in Minnesota and across the nation, the number of gun dealers in the United States has plummeted 78 percent in the past 10 years as tens of thousands of home-based dealers surrendered their federal licenses. The drop shows how the gun debate has moved from a national stage -- where gun control advocates lost congressional battles to ban assault weapons and to sue gun manufacturers -- to local zoning boards that are creating a growing web of fees and regulations that indirectly restrict firearms sales.
"The gun control agenda has evolved from the halls of Congress and the courts," said Andrew Arulanandam, director of public affairs for the National Rifle Association (NRA). "Now we're seeing it evolve to the micro level in local municipalities."
But what looks like welcome news to gun opponents might just have driven gun sales off the books, as fewer personal gun sales are logged, vetted and tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Whether that has led to more illegal gun trafficking is open to debate.
"Most of these guys [who are no longer licensed] were just home-based dealers who did gun shows on the weekends as a part-time job," said Mark Koscielski, who is fighting a zoning battle to hold on as the last remaining gun store in Minneapolis. "Now they revert to private collectors, so they're free to sell without federal background checks. They're private sales."
Once more numerous than gas stations, people who held the government's most basic gun-dealer license totaled nearly a quarter-million in 1994. Last year, the...
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Yup--that's exactly what they think.
"I also don't see how the stores can even make a profit on gun sales. The .22 from Walmart cost me $99 and I'm sure that the employee time to do all of the paperwork and jump through all of the hoops more than ate up any profit margin that Walmart should have gotten."
If your walmart is anything like the ones near me, they paid that employee almost nothing because hes an illegal. The jokes on you because you tax money is supporting his kids, who don't learn enligh.
If I were to add me, my family, and all my friends who shoot, I could probably open a storefront business--all those "little" dealers made it that much tougher to go after the bigger ones.
Get them out of the way, and the effort can be concentrated on just a relatively few retail outlets, instead of all those little guys.
No matter how you look at it, there is a strategy here. Remember this got its start under the Clintons.
That number is now down to slightly more than 50 percent.
Bill Clinton burned down a church
b'shem Y'shua
and murdered 78 human beings
to get rid of just one Type 1 FFL in Waco Texas.
Screw them! I am bucking the trend, as I am finishing building a gunshop at my place. No zoning and the mayor is helping me acquire tax rebates from the state. Pick your place wisely. Do not set up a libertarian bookstore in a 1960's Red Square!
Things are coming to a head. This isn't the only straw on the camels back...
"...Now, does everyone know what happens to the dealers records when he "surrenders" his license? They get sent to the BATF. What do you think the BATF is doing with the records of every firearm transaction? Sounds like they had a plan all along, doesn't it..."
If I was sitting at my breakfast table reading the newspaper over coffee and learned the doors of a BATFE vehicle transporting 4473's unlatched and thousands of records blew all over the highway during a torrential rainstorm...it wouldn't make me sad. Is it wrong of me to say that?
~ Blue Jays ~
They're next. You can count on it.
ping 14
My advice is do not mention that you own specific unregistered firearms on the Internet. Buy your ammo for these firearms with cash.
Make it difficult for them to track your unregistered firearms to you!
This is all about the deliberate destruction of the "gun culture."
In a free country there would be no license. Everyone should enjoy the right to keep and bear arms. If a criminal cannot be trusted with one after they served their time then maybe they shouldn't be out of jail. I mean, we release people we do not trust into our population.
We also have 536 of them in Washington, DC and for some reason, most of them continually get sent back again and again and again...
Consolidation in the industry. Nothing more, nothing less.
This is NOT good news.
Guns are a legal commodity - they are not drugs or porn.
But the far left-wing has succeeded in painting them as such in the mind of the public and the educational establishment is raising generations of young Americans to beleive there is no legitimate use or right for a firearm.
And where is Mr. Gonzales in this situation? Where is the Bush Administration?
Yep, I agree. Unfortunately, with the little guys out of the way, they can tell the big ones "their way or the highway". Liability insurance cost has factored into more than one decision to shut down, too. Hopefully anti tort legislation will put an end to that angle.
Even more support for my #39 premise.
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