Posted on 05/16/2010 11:23:11 AM PDT by rellimpank
Juan Cardona-Marquez can't legally buy a gun. He can't shoot one. He can't even touch one without committing a crime.
So how was it that the 22-year-old Milwaukee man - who threatened his girlfriend and was later charged with armed robbery and a string of burglaries - was able to rent a .45-caliber Glock handgun from Badger Guns and practice his aim on the store's shooting range?
The answer lies in a little-known quirk of federal gun laws.
Gun stores must check the criminal background of anyone buying a gun. But no check is required if someone rents a gun to use on the store's shooting range. In fact, a background check is not even allowed for rentals.
Prosecutors say a felon or other person legally barred from having a gun is breaking the law by handling one and could be charged. But they need proof.
"They can go and play with a gun, handle it, fire it, even take pictures with it to intimidate other people and nobody is going to know about it," said Joseph J. Vince Jr., a retired supervisor from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"If they have the gun in the store or out of the store, it is a danger to the public."
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
Liberals are little kids and afraid of their own shadows.
They can also do that by carving a block of wood, and painting it to look like a gun. They can do that by having someone who's good at Photoshop superimpose their face on a photo of another person in a threatening pose.
These hand-wringing ninnies need to get a life. Why don't they worry about incoming asteroids.
Did these guys ever come across a problem, not related to sex or drugs, where they DIDN’T think the solution was for ME to give up some more freedom?
Personally, I think it would be a good idea to do a background check when they rent a gun. The problem is that there is no facility to do a background check on such short notice. We have a local gun range where a mother and her 20 year old son went to the range and rented a gun. The mother killed the son, then killed herself. Turns out that she had been Baker Acted, yet they rented her a gun. There was no way the gun shop could have known that she had been Baker Acted. They complained to the State that the State would not let them do an instant background check, but to no avail. A month later, some guy went to the same range, rented a gun, and committed suicide. I was just there a few days ago. They are still not doing background checks because there is simply no way to do them.
Are you an ATF agent? You certainly have the mentality.
I suspect they’re also not *allowed* to refuse to rent a gun to someone just because they have a bad feeling about him/her, because as an establishment open to the public, that would be “discrimination” and they’d find themselves on the losing end of legal action.
In many cases, the management’s hunch might be more effective than a federal or state background check.
Give me a break. Are you going to stand up for the right of crazy people and felons to rent guns? Not me. And by the way, the NRA is also opposed to the idea of mental defects and felons being permitted to have guns. Law abiding gun owners do not benefit from letting crazies and felons have guns.
You do know that they can’t leave the shooting range with the gun, don’t you?
I've been hoping for one of those to hit DC.
No, I'm standing up for the right of sane law-abiding people to rent weapons without their employees (at the gun range OR the statehouse) knowing their business.
If Juan Cardona-Marquez (Obviously an Amish name!) were indeed a “prohibited person” when he went to that gun range, then even touching a firearm there was already a crime. Thus there is no loophole in the law and the author should go and change his Depends.
No such luck. In reality, it would hit my town or yours, and the perfectly intact Mensa candidates in Congress would ban asteroids! :-(
Please tell me how a background check is going to stop a suicide if some person wakes up one morning and decides to kill themself and their family members? Mom could have also rented a car and driven off a cliff. Are you going to do firearm background checks on car rentals?
Bigmouth! He hadn't thought of that one yet!
“...Shall not be infringed...”
.
The lady I wrote about had been Baker Acted. That is pretty crazy. The other guy, as far as I know, had not been Baker Acted, so the range probably would not have been able to stop him. But the range I go to has a big sign on the door, “We reserve the right to deny service to anyone for any reason.” They also make you fill out a form where they ask you if you’ve been declared incompetent or convicted of a felony. They also ask if you’re subject to a restraining order. Of course, anyone can lie about that stuff, and they’d never know. Personally, I would feel a bit safer in the range if I thought they had done a background check on everyone. And I don’t see what the civil liberties issue is, assuming that it could be done quickly.
The fact that the guy killed himself doesn’t bother me. I just don’t want to be standing in the stall at the shooting range next to that guy when he does it.
If they are law abiding sane people, then they won’t know their business. It’s the insane people and the felons who fail the check.
That's a laugh. The idea of you even being 'in the range' is ludicrous.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.