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Posted on 06/18/2023 8:46:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
One of the big problems we have in this day and age are felons getting guns. Bad guys with firearms can do bad things. We all know this, even if we figure not everyone who has a gun illegally is going to kill or even shoot another person.
The issue is that gun control is supposed to stop that.
In Maine, there’s been a lot of talk about anti-Second Amendment regulations. Despite being a pretty blue state, it’s also one with a long history of opposing gun control. Recently, an effort to pass some failed there.
Much of this push follows a mass shooting in the state, one that rattled a lot of people.
Yet one publication, the Bangor Daily News, decided to look at how felons actually get guns
Research and public records offer a limited glimpse into the ways restricted people are getting their guns.
One method is so-called straw purchasing, in which someone else buys the guns for a prohibited person. In a rare example of bipartisan gun control, Congress tightened the penalties for straw purchasing last year in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting.
Johnathan Nathans, an assistant U.S. attorney based in Maine, said that he’s anecdotally seen “a real rise” in straw purchasing in recent years, often connected to drug crime.
“You have people that are vulnerable, that don’t have a criminal history at all, and they are being asked by people, oftentime drug dealers, to go and purchase firearms for them,” Nathans said. “So they’re going in and purchasing one or two or more firearms, and then those firearms are quickly being handed over to a prohibited person.”
Court records offer some examples of this, such as a Massachusetts trafficker forgiving the drug debts of someone who bought seven guns in southern Maine, or a Brewer pawn shop worker falsifying records for 16 straw purchases.
Guns also can be acquired illegally by theft, borrowing or private purchase. That could be from a close acquaintance, the black market, classified ads or gun shows. Maine does not require background checks for private gun sales, and various proposals to enact them have been rejected by voters and lawmakers over the years.
A 2012 study of 253 people incarcerated for gun crimes found that about 40 percent were previously prohibited from having them. Those participants only occasionally got their guns from stores or pawn shops, and none reported using gun shows. Most were obtained from friends, family and dealers on the street — and were usually purchased or borrowed instead of stolen.
However, it should be noted that the “dealers on the street” typically were selling stolen guns. The person arrested didn’t steal them, but that’s not to say they weren’t stolen.
Now, with that said, it’s important to note that on just about everything else, what was presented isn’t unlikely what we already know to be true.
But let’s also address the idea of background checks for private sales. The idea that is seemingly presented here is that felons would be caught up if they were required.
The problem with that is that they already note that a lot of them get them from friends and family. In other words, they’re buying them from people who probably already know they’re prohibited from buying a firearm. That’s already a crime. You don’t need more laws.
However, I applaud them for acknowledging that much of the problem does come from illicit means like straw purchases or theft. That doesn’t get a lot of attention from the media.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still an anti-gun bias here; a real feeling that the felons aren’t the problem, the lack of regulation is, but at least there’s some acknowledgment of what we actually know regarding how these felons get guns despite all the laws already in place.
It would almost be refreshing without the hints of desire for universal background checks.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/kate-steinle-murder-case-explained-from-trumps-comments-to-doj-arrest-warrant
” felons getting guns”
They buy a pistol brace..?
Maine was never your typical blue-urban state, but the migration of leftists from Mass, NY, and elsewhere to Portland has turned it into a mini-SF, with all the attendant crime problems. Not to mention the Feds dumping Somali “refugees” in the state.
Gun control laws aren’t about public safety: they are about punishing people who believe in gun ownership. It’s more about Thoughtcrimes than violent crime.
This Ping List is for all news pertaining to infringes upon or victories for the 2nd Amendment.
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Who cares
Do the time and the paper
Rights restored
That was the law to 1968 and had avenues to appeal that till Trent Lott revoked funding in 1994
Anybody figure how many rightists are gun disenfranchised ?
A f lot of em
The duallist on YouTube has podcasts on getting around it
Better than nothing
Pre 1899 revolvers many which shoot great
Felons who are recidivist don’t care about laws
Those gone straight to
Logic says conservatives more likely in the latter group
shouldn’t one have to have a certain IQ to buy a gun?....I don’t know how all these pathetically stupid people get them
Perhaps one should have a threshold IQ for becoming a citizen?
Nice slow-mo there. I had to borrow the link.
I say if it was a violent felony, nope
If it was a nonviolent felony, ok
Because they already proved once they will use deadlly weapons against people to commit crimes
I forgot about Trent completely.
Just as well.
Even if the laws were really tight and somehow the total number of privately owned guns decreased (ie the Gun Grabbers’ wet dream)....criminals would easily be able to buy either home manufactured guns, or guns would be smuggled into the country like booze was during Prohibition and drugs are now, or 3D printed guns would become a lot more common than they are now.
You are not going to be able to keep guns out of the hands of people who want them in order to commit crimes.
Not.
Not gonna happen.
Its a fantasy.
Between you and I, I don’t believe for one second reducing crime is really why the Gun Grabbers want to grab all the guns, I think it has a lot more to do with them wanting to render the people defenseless and them wanting to remove any potential check on government power, but the fear of crime is the excuse they are using for it. Well, that fig leaf doesn’t work. Criminals will always get guns. You can’t stop them.
Why don’t we make drug dealing criminal. I’m sure these nice dealers are just asking.
So, felons who are not able to legally purchase firearms, find addicts or dupes to purchase the firearms on their behalf.
Maybe those felons should not be out on the street.
Don’t restrict firearms, restrict felons in our general population.
It may come as a surprise to many Freepers but Vermont,just about the filthiest Maoist state in the country,has some of the least intrusive gun laws.
With an estimated 300 million guns already in the US, how long would it take to remove them all if they were outlawed today? 50 years? 100? Just like an earlier commenter said, it is a fantasy. The toothpaste is already out of the tube and it ain’t going back…
Even then, most handy people can build a gun, some can build them as good as anyone.
How do felons get drugs? How do felons get flat screen TVs? How do felons get diapers?
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