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Posted on 09/30/2002 6:20:13 PM PDT by FSPress
A letter from a federal firearms agent urging a gun manufacturer to help track the illegal use of its weapons has become crucial evidence in a lawsuit by 12 California cities and counties against the gun industry.
The letter, sent in 2000, suggested that Taurus International Manufacturing, of Miami, install a government computer to help determine whether dealers are helping criminals obtain firearms.
"If your corporation determines that there is an unusually high number of Taurus firearms being traced to certain" wholesalers and dealers, "we suggest that you look at their business practices more carefully," the letter said.
It was written by Forest G. Webb, a special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in charge of its National Tracing Center, an agency that tracks guns recovered in crimes.
Taurus never acted on Webb's advice.
Yet the letter, and Taurus' inaction, have emerged as major issues in the first lawsuit to reach the trial stage among 30 filed against gun companies by cities and counties around the nation.
The plaintiffs include the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., and the trial is to begin next spring in San Diego.
The letter was uncovered in the discovery phase of the case. Some of the documents and depositions produced in discovery were made available to The New York Times through court records and by the plaintiffs.
The central contention of the California cities is that the gun industry maintains a distribution system that allows many guns to fall into the hands of criminals and juveniles, creating a public nuisance and violating state law on unfair business practices.
"One of the ways the companies do this is to basically sell to anyone with a federal firearms license," said Dennis Henigan, the legal director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and a co-counsel in the California suits. "They sell guns without getting any information from the distributors or dealers about the number of guns they sell that end up being used in crimes or when customers make multiple purchases of guns, both tip-offs to problems.''
Studies by the firearms bureau have shown that about 1 percent of dealers account for about half of all guns used in crimes, meaning that a few dealers appear to be responsible for selling thousands of guns to criminals.
Gun makers are not legally obligated to monitor their distributors.
Lawrence G. Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry trade association, dismissed the letter.
"I am not concerned about any document that is going to come out," Keane said.
Pure BS
10-4. I suspect the ATF sent these letters to all gun manufacturers as part of their effort to set them up for lawsuits. This didn't just happen.
Sounds like a back door way around the prohibition, now being enforced (we think!) by Ashcroft, on BATF, or anybody else in the federal government or using federal money, against maintaing a regsitry of gun owners. BATF will never rest, except as in R.I.P, until they know where all the lawfully owned weapons are. They will of course never know about the weapons owned by criminals, who don't buy them at gun dealers, or gun shows, and sure as hell don't pay attention to such "laws" or "regulations" in the first place.
"If your corporation determines that there is an unusually high number of Ford vehicles being traced to certain" wholesalers and dealers, "we suggest that you look at their business practices more carefully," the letter said.
The BATF is a corrupt organization and has been since it's inception.
Read about the history of the BATF and it's ongoing abuses in the novel by John Ross, Unintended Consequences.
Gee, maybe BATF is giving FFLs to crimals...nah couldn't be, could it?
Studies by the firearms bureau have shown that about 1 percent of dealers account for about half of all guns used in crimes, meaning that a few dealers appear to be responsible for selling thousands of guns to criminals.
Fairly meaningless, especially considering that, IIRC, they use "guns traced" as a substitute for "Guns sold to criminals". But even if their numbers did reflect "Guns sold to criminals, that doesnt' mean that these dealers sell any higher proportion of their guns to criminals than other dealers. It probably means they just sell more guns period! Gun makers are not legally obligated to monitor their distributors. So why not just shut up about it?
If two large Italian guys had entered a small shop and made a similar "suggestion," it would have been called a "shakedown." If government goons make the threat, not only isn't it a crime, failure to kowtow to the threat is considered evidence of malice????!!!
Up is down. And the inmates are running the asylum.
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