Posted on 02/05/2008 10:51:53 AM PST by neverdem
A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled on Friday that the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg did not break the law in conducting sting operations meant to catch out-of-state gun dealers making illegal sales.
The ruling, by Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak of Federal District Court, followed lawsuits brought by the city against the dealers in the mayor’s campaign against illegal gun trafficking.
In 2006, the city sent teams of private investigators to five states, where they posed as gun buyers. They focused on stores whose guns had been linked to more than 500 crimes in New York City from 1994 to 2001.
Administration officials charged that the investigators caught 27 dealerships allowing so-called straw purchases, in which one person submits to the required federal background check for a gun that is clearly to be used by someone else. The administration sued those dealerships, seeking monetary damages and the power to oversee future transactions. Fifteen of them agreed to the city’s terms, while suits against the remaining 12 are going forward in the Brooklyn court.
In the discovery process, one set of defendants charged that the city had participated in fraud by directing investigators to buy firearms under false pretenses, but Judge Pollak disagreed, finding that no crime or fraud had taken place because the investigators had not bought the guns for other people.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So any private citizen can conduct a “sting”, any time they want? Is that the chaos this illiterate “judge” is endorsing?
If this is applicable, then there were no "strawman" purchases.
This would be almost comical if the consequences weren’t so serious. The city sues these dealers claiming that they allowed “straw purchases” and then argues for the case to proceed because there were no “straw purchases” made. I guess that’s what passes for reasoning in legal circles.
NY: Museums, re-enactors worry over plan to regulate antique firearms
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
What the states need to do is sue in THEIR courts (somehow) so that Good Ole Boy and fine local Judge Rufus Smith, cousin of Mayor Orville Smith and second cousin once removed from the gunshop owner Bob Lee White can decide if Nah Yawkers comin' down here and 'vestigating is a crime or not.
I agree with you. Would it have not been lovely if these undercover investigators had been arrested right then and there in the gun shop and be in these states criminal justice system. I’ll bet ole’ Bloomberg and his boys would have been fighting tooth and nail to get them out.
“Judge Pollak disagreed, finding that no crime or fraud had taken place because the investigators had not bought the guns for other people.”
If the judge so ruled, then there were no straw-man purchases in these instances, and, thus, no case.
The greater danger is that some of these shops have agreed to the requirements of the city of New York for oversight of their business. Tell them to go pound sand...
Seems to me lots of New Yorkers, starting with the Mayor, and going on down the food-chain, have difficulty respecting and obeying other folk's laws and customs.
Then they have the unmitigated gall to demand that we participate in their questionable tactics to catch folks violating their laws in our states where the same behavior is not considered all that serious.
Maybe we need a fence around New York or something.
Giving me another idea ~ here in Virginia we could make it unlawful for a New Yorker to purchase anything. Make that a felony too.
If there was no straw man buys, as the (cough) judge says, then Bloomie can't sue the dealers as no law was violated. Yet Bloomie ADMITS the sting was to pull off straw man buys from THESE dealers.
This will/should be appealed. 'Magistrate judges' are a step above law clerk. They're not real "Federal Judges" appointed by the POTUS.
“In the discovery process, one set of defendants charged that the city had participated in fraud by directing investigators to buy firearms under false pretenses, but Judge Pollak disagreed, finding that no crime or fraud had taken place because the investigators had not bought the guns for other people.”
Then what in the heck is this lawsuit about?
If the basic case is that the VA firearms brokers “allowed obvious strawman purchases” but then “the firearms were not purchased for someone else” where is the Tort?
This case is a joke, not only will it be bounced once that sort of stuff is reviewed, but Va passed laws against this sort of thing.
Liberals, a pox on the American Body Politic...
Not a private citizen. A city government operating not only outside of the boundaries of the city, but not even in the same STATE! According to this nitwit judge, one city in Alaska could conduct some sort of “sting” in Miami and then claim some sort of damage from it and sue!
And worse, the judge bought it!
Actually the investigators were buying the guns with other people's money. That is a straw purchase. However, they were disguising that fact from the dealers, so it's only the investigators that were breaking the law, not the dealers.
These news reports also continuously and likely intentionally misstate the law.
It is not illegal to purchase a guy with your own money as a gift for someone else. It says so right on the ATF Form 4473, Page 3, Notice 1.
http://www.atf.gov/forms/4473/page03.htm
Having one person pick out the firearm and another person pay for it, does not make it a straw purchase despite how many times gun control advocates lie and say that it is.
These dealers should be suing Bloomberg and the investigators for libel and slander. The ATF should be prosecuting them for making straw purchases.
This judge should be tossed out of office.
Regarding staying home in November to “teach the Republicans a lesson:” JUDGES, JUDGES, JUDGES!!
Thanks for the ping!
Shoot em......that’s solid proof they can take back too bloomie !
Fact of the matter is that behind all the smoke and mirrors Bloomberg et al set up, nothing illegal happened.
If it had, Bloomberg’s cronies would/should be in jail.
But since nothing happened, nobody is in trouble.
So what? It's legal, so long as the intended & ultimate recipient is legal. Much as Bloomberg's cronies tried to make it look suspicious, nobody involved was prohibited from possession - ergo, no crime.
I bet OJ and his lawyers are whooping it up over this decision. Great precedence for him. I just hope Las Vegas judges aren't as stupid as NY Judges.
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