Constitution Cowboy seems to be one of the few that picked up on the difference between
couldn’t and
probably couldn’t. I’m sure King Michael’s jesters did not use
couldn’t as they knew a lot of folks would not sell to them, and this was not their intent. Their intent was to entrap as many folks as possible-easier to do when you purposely deal in the gray areas. (This doesn't even cover whether the seller could hear what they actually said on the video I saw).
I do the majority of my buying from a local VA shop that got caught up in the original sting/fiasco, and was dropped from the suit. From the videos I’ve seen in the original operation, the PIs making the “straw purchases” did
not make it clear that the person filling out the paperwork was
not the person for whom the purchase was being made, just as they didn’t use the word
couldn’t. (The shop wouldn't have sold to 'em if the KNEW the gun was not for the person filling out the forms-I've seen 'em send many folks away that didn't have thier act together).
Heck…no more time than I spend at gun shops I’ve seen husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend come in and the guy would do all the talking, then tell his significant other “this is the gun you need/want” (often local well-known customers). Bloomberg’s cronies no doubt know this, and mimicked this behavior as closely as possible in order to pepetrate as many entrapments as possible.
I also understand the PIs used the address of the agency they worked for on the forms-is it not against the law to use a business address? I’ve been told (and don’t doubt) that you have to use your residential address.
‘Course, this would simply be another lie on the form/law broken by the PIs when they filled out the forms.
Bloomberg also sent a couple of legal secretaries from out of town to spend a day going through the shop’s records, reportedly with a list of serial numbers of guns used in N.Y. crimes. Wasn’t long before the owner saw a red flag-one of the serial numbers was a gun the shop owner was pretty darn sure the owner would not part with, and he doubted seriously said owner would ever go to N.Y. He called him up, wanted to know who he sold the gun to, and the owner didn’t know what the heck he was talking about-told ‘em the gun was on his hip, and neither he or the gun had ever been (or had any desire) to go near N.Y.
The owner was at the shop in less than 30 minutes, “suspect” gun on hip.
Kinda makes you wonder how many of King Michael’s reported “out of state sales for guns involved in N.Y. crimes” are bogus, don’t it?
BTW...have you seen the
NRA ad for Bob McDonnell?
(
WARNING: Duct tape your head before you read some of those wacky Huffington Post comments!)
Fer those of you not familiar-Bob McDonnell was VA's Attorney General when King Michael pulled his original stunt. VA passed a law to prevent this from happening again (they already broke existing laws) and McDonnell sent a letter to King Michael letting him know if he and his cronies tried a stunt like that again, they'd be violating X laws/committing X felonies in VA.
You can imagine how The King received that!
I'm guessing that's why The King and his jesters bypassed VA with the gun show stunt this time?