Indiana Factory Shooting Highlights Need For Improved Oversight Of Kitchen-Table Gun Dealers

U.S. Newswire ^ | Violence Policy Center

[Sir Gawain]

IN Factory Shooting Highlights Need for Improved Oversight
U.S. Newswire
7 Dec 16:33

Indiana Factory Shooting Highlights Need For Improved Oversight Of
Kitchen-Table Gun Dealers
To: State Desk
Contact: Naomi Seligman of the Violence Policy Center,
202-822-8200, ext.105
Web site: www.vpc.org
 

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The tragic shooting
yesterday allegedly perpetrated by Indiana kitchen-table gun dealer
Robert Wissman at the NuWood Decorative Millwork factory in Goshen,
Indiana, highlights the need for improved oversight of such
dealers, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) stated today. Wissman was
a Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder and ran Bob's Gun Works
from the home he shared with his mother.

Kitchen-table gun dealers are individuals who hold FFLs and
conduct business out of their homes or offices but do not operate
actual gun or sporting-goods stores. Federal Firearm License
holders are exempt from state and federal waiting periods and
background checks, and are able to purchase firearms from
wholesalers at discount and in unlimited quantities. The Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has identified kitchen-table
dealers as a key source of firearms in criminal gun trafficking.

The November 2000 VPC study Less Gun Dealers, Less Crime: The
Drop in Federally Licensed Firearm Dealers in the Midwest found
that the number of gun dealers in Indiana had dropped 66 percent,
from 5,872 in January 1994 to 1,970 in January 2000. This decline
is largely attributed to new licensing and renewal criteria
contained in 1993's Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and
1994's Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, as well as
enhanced ATF enforcement. As a result, by 1998 56 percent of FFLs
nationwide operated out of residential premises, down from 74
percent in 1992.

"While much progress has been made in reducing the number of
kitchen-table dealers, and thereby reducing criminals' access to
guns, yesterday's shooting highlights the fact that there is still
much more work to be done," said VPC Policy Analyst Marty Langley.

To continue to build on FFL reforms, the VPC recommends the
following actions:

-- All federally licensed firearms dealers should be required to
operate from a storefront business, not a residence. Licenses
should be limited to businesses devoted primarily to the sale of
firearms. Gun shops should be conspicuously identified to the
public as such.

-- ATF should have the authority to suspend a dealer's license
or assess civil penalties -- in addition to revocation
authority-when a dealer violates the law.

-- ATF's ability to inspect a licensee's premises to ensure
compliance with recordkeeping and other requirements should be
expanded from once a year to at least four times per year.

---
For more information, please contact VPC Communications Director
Naomi Seligman at 202-822-8200 x105 (office), 202-841-5096 (cell).
The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational
organization working to stop gun death and injury in America.

 

KEYWORDS:

GUNS/FIREARMS, POLICY, POLITICAL

http://www.usnewswire.com
-0-
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
12/07 16:33

[tubebender]

Excellent post. Now we need to use these statistics to counter the gun grabbers. Salesmenship starts with answering questions (objections) with questions.

[Teacher317]

Must've been a magic talking gun that convinced him do it. We'll have to ban them all, just in case they all can talk, and have conspiring to keep the secret.

Do I really have to type "/sarcasm>"?

[tet68]

When O'When are we going to close the "Freedom" loop hole!

Ted and Chuck's excellent Socialist adventure continues.

[Free Vulcan]

btss

[Johnny Shear]

This guy was a loser-FREAK! I see his type every day. (I live close to Goshen).

He lived with his mother...He was about 45 years old. I'm quite sure it will turn out that he was HEAVILY depressed. He hadn't slept for 3 nights before this happened. He was pissed over losing his girlfriend. They guy had a death wish...Plain and simple.

I don't know what to make of all of it. Other than the dude was a ticking time-bomb. There is a big stink over the fact that this guy killed his supervisor even AFTER the supervisor had called the police to warn them about this freak a few hours before he died (Just after they told the guy to go home and get some sleep). In Goshen, Indiana, he could have gotten the guns he used ANYWHERE. The fact that he was a two-bit home gun dealer had very little to do with it. And if I'm not mistaken, he used a shot gun to kill himself.

I don't know what the answer is but neither do the anti-gun lobby...But that won't stop them from making hey of the issue. The only way this would have been prevented was to have magically made all guns disappear before the accident.

[Johnny Shear]

I forgot to mention this in my post above...

I was listening to a Detroit radio station when word broke of this freak's killing spree...

They reported, numerous times that.....THIRTY PEOPLE HAD BEEN SHOT DEAD!!!!!!!

How can ANYONE get away with this? This was a MAJOR radio station reporting this!! Hell, if I'm not mistaken, the plnat only emplyed about 30 or so people! I just CAN'T believe that this big of a mistake can be made in reporting...

[lelio]

Anyone have a link handy to some research that shows that states with active conceal carry people have less instances of multiple gun shooting victims?
People with CCWs can't stop the single murder, but they do tend to stop the people that go on massive shootings like this. What if there was someone in the factory with a simple revolver? Might of made him scared enough to run off. Or at least confuse him enough so that someone could tackle him.

[lelio]

Hey lelio do some of your own research. Here's a link on nationalreview.com that describes Lott and Landes' findings about mass shootings and concealed carry.