Gun sales stop at state Wal-Marts - Investigation found chain sold firearms to convicted felons

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | April 5, 2003 | Robert Salladay

[Scoop]

Sacramento -- Wal-Mart, the nation's largest seller of guns, agreed Friday to immediately halt the sale of firearms at its 118 California stores after an investigation by Attorney General Bill Lockyer found numerous violations of state gun laws.

Lockyer said six Wal-Mart stores inspected by his office in the Central Valley and Sacramento had violated state laws 490 times, including two incidents where guns were sold to convicted felons. Along with numerous paperwork errors, some guns were released before background checks were finished or fingerprints were taken.

[Uncle Hal]

The California AD, Lockyer, is very anti gun. I am sure he has a larger agenda than just stopping gun sales at Wal-Mart. I would guess the anti gun crowd wants to stop gun sales at all Wal-Marts nation wide.

[DakotaGator]

Death by a thousand cuts.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Along with numerous paperwork errors, some guns were released before background checks were finished or fingerprints were taken.

Federal law specifically states that if the background check is not completed within a specific period of time the firearm can be released.

And the whole idea of the "paperwork" is to make it too time-consuming and expensive to sell guns to anybody.

[Fraulein]

ping

[DonPaulJonesII]

To hell with California. The ONLY way that I would EVER cross that border would be as part of an armed force intending to do a little regime change. You know, reinstate the Costitution as the law of the land...

[lelio]

"They just kept going to Wal-Mart stores and finding these violations. We don't believe they are isolated. We believe it's a systematic problem."
That's a little misleading to say that ALL Wall-Mart stores were doing this as they only went to six of them. But still it doesn't sound like Wall-Mart is running a very tight ship. Well unless you're trying to unionize the workforce.

produced a report showing that 10,000 convicted felons and others were sold firearms by various retailers while background checks were pending or delayed.
And whose fault is that the background checks take forever? There has to be a time limit for the background check or else the government took theoretically take years to do one on people it doesn't like.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Lockyer is anti-gun for sure, however I know that some Wal-Mart employees aren't the smartest bunch of kids. Most of this is probably human error.

Good Lord, I'm defending Wal-Mart. I think I hear a stampede of moose running down my street...

[Cold Heat]

All American retail stores should pull out of Kalifornicate.

It is no longer feasible to operate in a communist regime.

[Chewbacca]

You appear to be defending the employees who may not be completely trained in their jobs. I don't take your remarks to be a defense of Wallmart at all.

[antaresequity]

"Public safety is severly jeopardized when gun dealers provide firearms to people who are prohibited from possessing, much less purchasing them," Lockyer said in the statement.

I wonder if this Communist considered that denying the rights of law abiding citizens to own firearms also 'jeapordizes safety'

Of Course Not

[ErnBatavia]

The ONLY way that I would EVER cross that border would be as part of an armed force intending to do a little regime change.

Please come in by sea! Maybe you don't know it, but once you get 30 miles from the coastal cities, CA is as much "flyover country" as anywhere else in the red zone.

[Fraulein]

"They just kept going to Wal-Mart stores and finding these violations. We don't believe they are isolated. We believe it's a systematic problem."

It's the gun laws that are the systematic problem. And there's so many of them (especially in Kalifornia) that it's virtually impossible for there not to be a violation of sort.

[Hank Rearden]

A required scanner needed to process identification cards was missing at the store, resulting in 45 violations. The store failed to obtain a fingerprint from gun buyers 54 times and twice illegally delivered a firearm to someone during the 10-day waiting period, Lockyer's office said. State law also prohibits handing over guns to people if they haven't picked up their firearm within 30 days of buying it, even if they pass the background check. Some of the stores were nevertheless ignoring this monthlong window and giving guns to buyers, Lockyer's office said.

Lotta damn hoops to jump through to exercise a Constitutional right. I'm so glad I abandoned CA years and years ago.

[upcountryhorseman]

I'm buying all my guns in Nevada!

[Puppage]

California AD, Lockyer

I'm sure he wants to do something to make up for his TWO failed ballistic fingerprinting studies that didn't go "his" way.

[William Tell]

From the article: "The store failed to obtain a fingerprint from gun buyers 54 times and twice illegally delivered a firearm to someone during the 10-day waiting period, Lockyer's office said. "

Numerous failures to infringe the right to keep and bear arms.

[Indrid Cold]

The fedgov says if the retailer has not received a "denial" on the background check after 3 business days, the retailer may opt to transfer the firearm. Probably the early transfers resulted from pimply-faced 16-year-olds not being able to count "business days". For instance, if I walked in on Wednesday and started the background check and got delayed, the following Tuesday would be the earliest I could pick up my Remington or whatever. At least, according to the feds--I understand there are state requirements in CA that have to be met, too.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

I wonder where Davis buys his guns?

I'd rather live with the errors which exist currently on the system for a few reasons. First they provide incentive to improve the system and secondly we have a better opportunity to trace these purchases than black market.

[TheSpottedOwl]

You appear to be defending the employees who may not be completely trained in their jobs. I don't take your remarks to be a defense of Wallmart at all.

Actually it's defending employees and acknowledging Wal-mart's utter disregard for said employees. I know some kids who had jobs there back when I lived in a town that had two Wal-Marts. The paperwork will make an older, experienced person pull their hair out. Since these particular stores were perpetually short handed, I can imagine the employees pencil whipping the forms, so they don't get written up. This ends up screwing the consumer who has to spend more money to get hunting rifles and ammo at a price he/she can afford.