Free Republic

Individuals who are prohibited from purchasing firearms for any reason (mental health, criminal convictions, etc.) are rarely investigated or prosecuted when they do try to buy a weapon, a federal study has determined. According to a report published by the the Government Accountability Office on Sept. 5: In fiscal year 2017, "approximately 25.6 million firearm-related background checks were processed through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), and about 181,000 (about 1 percent) of the attempted purchases were denied because the background check revealed that the individual was prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal...

The House Oversight Committee released a scathing report Wednesday that accuses former Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice of covering up Operation Fast and Furious and misleading Congress’ investigation into the botched gun-running operation. The nearly 300-page report states that the Justice Department under Holder actively tried to hide the facts from the loved ones of slain Border Patrol Brian Terry — seeing his family as more of a “nuisance” than one deserving straight answers — and at times being openly hostile to them. […] The report also says that Holder’s Justice Department stonewalled inquiries from Sen....

A divided Supreme Court sided with gun control groups and the Obama administration Monday, ruling that the federal ban on "straw" purchases of guns can be enforced even if the ultimate buyer is legally allowed to own a gun. The justices ruled 5-4 that the law applied to a Virginia man who bought a gun with the intention of transferring it to a relative in Pennsylvania who was not prohibited from owning firearms.

The bill, which has bipartisan support, would impose strict penalties on buyers and sellers involved in purchases of firearms for someone who can't legally buy one. WASHINGTON — The Senate will take up its first firearms measure since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, after the Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday to combat gun trafficking. The proposal, steered by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the committee chairman, would impose strict penalties for buying a firearm for someone who cannot legally do so, an act known as a straw purchase. The bill would also toughen punishment for selling a gun to...

A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled on Friday that the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg did not break the law in conducting sting operations meant to catch out-of-state gun dealers making illegal sales. The ruling, by Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak of Federal District Court, followed lawsuits brought by the city against the dealers in the mayor’s campaign against illegal gun trafficking. In 2006, the city sent teams of private investigators to five states, where they posed as gun buyers. They focused on stores whose guns had been linked to more than 500 crimes in New York City from...