Posted on 01/06/2007 8:20:37 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Ohioans For Concealed Carry is pleased to join with The Virginia Citizens Defense League and other gun-rights groups in calling for an official federal investigation into New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's assault on firearms dealers.
From the letter being sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives:
It is well known that Mayor Bloomberg has organized a multi-state vigilante-style campaign against federal gun dealers. Bloomberg’s gambit is simple – without any federal or state law enforcement authorization, he sends people to federal firearms dealers to break federal law by providing false information on the federal ATF Form 4473 firearm transfer form, and then purchasing guns for persons prohibited by law from taking possession of guns (a so called “straw” sale). Bloomberg then files a civil lawsuit against the dealer in a New York court while using a covertly made video tape of the transaction to blackmail the dealer into “settling” on terms where the City of New York’s “Special Master” will supplant ATF supervision of the dealer and peruse Americans’ confidential federal gun transfer records at will.
OFCC believes that nobody is above the law. Mayor Bloomberg's actions were not sanctioned or conducted by any law enforcement group. In fact, his self-appointed mission reportedly destroyed several ongoing BATFE investigations. "Conducting your own investigation" is not a justifiable defense for hiring people to attempt to break the law. If this was a normal citizen, he or she would be fully prosecuted for such actions.
Several gun dealers in Ohio were targeted by this illegal operation. Even though they have maintained innocence of the charges in the lawsuits leveled against them, many of these shops have given in to Bloomberg's demands in order to avoid expensive legal defense that could easily ruin them financially even if they did win in the end.
To help combat this tactic, VCDL has formed a defense fund to try to ensure gun shops in Virginia get justice.
Click here to read the letter to the BATFE[http://www.ohioccw.org/files/BATFE_Letter.pdf]
What I'd love to see is for Bloomberg and his criminal minions to be the targets of a RICO prosecution for this. Every act in the process is criminal and then they use the threat of lawsuits in an effort to effectively overturn the laws of other jurisdictions. Of course, it won't happen because these people have two sets of protection which place them "above the law" - wealth and political connections.
I'm speechless.
So much for the rule of law, eh?
Boy that sounds like entrapment to me. Why? Because by filling out the form they have done everything that the gun dealer expects and is required. It isn't up to the sales point to determine if the information on the form is accurate. If they still pass the insta-check with incorrect information that's all the gun dealers can handle.
That's why there is the part at the bottom that the applicant signs that says something like: this information is correct or I (the applicant) can be held for purgery.
Bush? Act like a true conservative wary of government abuse? What kool-aid are you on??? =P
Where I'm sure it provided many a laugh to the "staff". It should have been sent to their bosses at Justice, and even that might not gain much besides a few chuckles. Gonzales is not Ashcroft.
--Henry Waxman (D., Cal) is equally guilty of this --a few years ago, even though in the supposedly "minority" party, his committee fixed up some agents with credible but false ID who than went and bought firearms to show "how easy it is"--
It would be, if it were done by police in their own jurisdiction. When done by "private investigators" outside the jurisdiction of their employer (and probably within it as well) it's just a criminal act.
AND, pray tell, is the PENNSYLVANIA Gun group????? Sitting on their butts probably....
INCARCERATION, not Investidation!!!
What is the federal penalty for lying on a Form 4473? I suspect it is a felony. Just because these bogus "straw purchasers" are working for Bloomberg doesn't make them any less federal criminals--no matter how much the BATFE jack-booted thugs may approve of their actions.
Unfortunately, that ain't going to happen. Bloomberg is a member of the protected class. Laws that apply to you and I don't apply to them.
I thought I'd said that.
Indeed!
If only Bloomberg and his cabal would have the same contempt for the 16th amendment.
Well, it bore repeating then. :-)
And ironically, his would be IMHO just about the only constitutional prosecution under those acts. After all, if he'd been actually purchasing firearms for the purpose of arming himself, that would have been a protected activity. But I see no basis for interpreting the Second Amendment as protecting the actions of someone who falsifies information on forms for the purpose of making it harder for other people to arm themselves.
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