Posted on 05/18/2006 6:22:58 AM PDT by freepatriot32
Traders Sports, one of the biggest gun dealers in the state, hopes a hearing in U.S. District Court next week will keep them in business.
Traders has been under scrutiny for several years by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), which is trying to shut down the gun dealer. The ATF decided to revoke Traders gun permit on June 1. After an audit in 2003, the ATF claims that Traders can’t account for 1,767 weapons, and that guns sold at Traders turn up in crimes at an alarming rate.
ATF spokeswoman Marti McKee said she couldn’t comment on the hearing, which is coming up next Thursday, May 25 in San Francisco before Judge Vaughn Walker.
Traders’ owner Tony Cucchiara also declined to comment on the hearing, deferring questions to his lawyer, Malcolm Segal.
The gun shop claims the ATF’s figures don’t add up because of human error, filling out paperwork wrong. They also say the ATF is unfairly targeting the store and going beyond reasonable annual inspections.
“The law allows one inspection a year — that’s a law passed by Congress — and the ATF inspected twice in one year,” said Segal.
Segal said the ATF decided to close Traders after their own hearing in which they used records going back 30 years.
“The errors they claim are really human errors,” Segal said. “Any time there are thousands of transactions with serial numbers in dozens of digits, there is always bound to be human error.”
The ATF initially claimed in its audit that Traders couldn’t account for 7,477 weapons, but the number in the final account was reduced to 1,767. Customers going to Traders this week tended to be on the gun shop’s side.
“I don’t like what they’re doing because it’s a good store,” said Sonny Verde, who comes from Marin County to shop at Traders. “They should go after the criminals not the gun stores.”
Last week the U.S. Department of Justice filed papers saying that guns sold by Traders have been recovered in a crime at a rate of nearly one per day.
About one in every eight guns sold by Traders between 2003 and 2005 has wound up in a crime, the second highest number of guns traced to crimes of any dealer in the nation, according to the Department of Justice.
In 1994, Muckraker magazine featured a story on Traders, listing violations found by the ATF going back to 1970, including sales to people who couldn’t legally buy guns and “straw sales,” which is a purchase by a legal buyer who turns the gun over to someone who can’t legally buy a gun.
It's Friday and it's been a long week. Please enlighten me.
Post #1 is nothing other than visceral babbling.
More like disgusted sarcasm....
You don't have a problem with the enforcement of unconstitutional laws?
I'd love to know the percentage represented by those 1,700 guns. If the store sells a million guns a year vs 5,000, it makes a huge difference as to how relevant that 1,700 number is.
As long as he does not insult your chili recipe, I shall cut him some slack. ;-)
With which "unconstitutional" laws are you having a problem?
over what period? one day? one week? one month? one year? one decade?
this statement is meaningless without such a timeframe.
Now, if they mean "one a day between 2003 and 2005", that can be interpreted as:
1. the 365 days of the year 2004, or @365 guns recovered in a "crime"*
2. the 1095 days spanning 01Jan03 and 31Dec05, or @1095 guns recovered in a "crime"*
so, BATFE(ieio)...which is it?
About one in every eight guns sold by Traders between 2003 and 2005*(see above) has wound up in a crime, the second highest number of guns traced to crimes of any dealer in the nation, according to the Department of Justice.
*hrmn... something smells off about this... what are they calling "crimes" when tallying up this 1/8 ratio?
and (forgot to point out) they're referring to a ratio as a number.
I'm sure that as soon as it's pointed out to them, they'll back off from that statement at a high rate of speed.
Wonder what the baseline for their number quote is?
Seriously, if they are going to attack that shop like that, they should look into the ratio of stolen guns 'recovered' in the same arbitrary and vague unquantified time frame.
Also, they should look at how many black market guns, guns from 'other' sources, guns 'lost', etc etc..
eggggzackley
Like I have said for a while now, the only difference between the twp parties is how fast we slide into a totalitarian regeime.
What about possible human error on the manufacturers side? Couldn't they put the wrong SN down or wrong dealer?
This from the agency that considers a part/componant with a SN number on it as a firearm. Doesn't matter that without a bunch of other parts/componants assembled correctly it won't fire (the main part of firearm) and is only suited for a paper weight.
Also, the agency that does not know how to properly test firearms, claims a shoestring is a machine gun and had NO standardized written procedures for determining whether a firearm was legal.
What we need is a President/Congress that will beat the snot out of them, if not eliminate them completely.
COOL tag line! I love it!
I am so allergic to that expression, it makes my skin crawl.
Is it supposed to be the second derivitive, or what?
Mathematical idiots.
Meanwhile 100% of all cars sold by Ford, GM, Toyota, Hyundai, Chevy, etc. has been used in the commission of a crime, vehicular accident & manslaughter, DUI, transporting Illegals and many many other crimes!!
Why isn't there a nationwide outcry banning the sales of these criminal automobiles?
Where is the outcry for the thousands of people harmed directly & indirectly caused by these products since they are clearly used for harm & criminal intent plus being a great threat to the well being of the society in general??
The amount of people killed, maimed and harmed by these notorious 'automobiles' are at least TEN times the amount than those by the smaller 'firearms' industry. But yet it is so "politically correct" to be anti-gun while ignoring the much greater threat & harm posed by using automobiles.
If the S/N on the paperwork did not match the S/N on the guns, the gun store should have caught it when they matched the received merchandise against the paperwork.
If there is, it's a fake. Mrs. Weaver was shot by Ron Horiuchi, an FBI agent. The only involvement of the BATFE in the Ruby Ridge fiasco was to entrap Randy Weaver, thus setting the whole affair up. Randy's son was shot by a federal marshal. The Marshals, rather than driving up and serving a warrant for Randy's arrest, were surveiling the place, and had been for quite some time. They never announced their presence, at least not until they shot the dog, who probably smelled them and was investigating. Randy's son and the Weaver's friend grabbed rifles when the dog alerted them, but they thought it was an animal. When the dog was shot, the son returned fire, the Marshals shot the son, and the friend shot one of the Marshalls. Later when the FBI came in, Horiuchi, a West Point grad, shot Mrs. Weaver.
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