Combating Illegal Guns

[camacho]

Below is Editorial from the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/opinion/06fri3.html

June 6, 2008
Editorial
Combating Illegal Guns

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign against illegal guns won a notable victory this week when a Georgia gun dealer decided to default rather than go to trial in a civil lawsuit that accused him of illegally selling handguns that were later used to commit crimes in New York.

The last-minute retreat by the dealer, Jay Wallace, is new vindication of Mr. Bloomberg’s strategy for holding irresponsible gun dealers accountable. It is part of the mayor’s larger battle against atrocious federal laws that shield the gun industry from having to account for the crimes committed with guns that they provide.

Mr. Wallace’s decision paves the way for court appointment of a federal monitor to oversee guns sales at his store. Twenty other dealers have settled lawsuits filed by the city in this manner.

In 2006, New York sued 27 gun dealers in Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, claiming their lax screening practices and illegal guns sales created a public nuisance in the city.

The suit navigates some tricky legal terrain. Bowing to the gun lobby three years ago, Congress passed a law to protect the gun industry from such lawsuits. A federal appeals court last month tossed out a city suit against gun makers and distributors. But the 2005 statute does not cover illegal gun sales, leaving room for the city to proceed against gun dealers.

The early evidence indicates that the city’s litigation is having an effect on the “iron pipeline” of illegal guns used to commit crimes in New York. A court filing in the city’s case shows a 75 percent drop in such guns coming from a sample of the dealers sued. Between 2006 and 2007, there was a 16 percent drop in the number of guns used in crimes in New York that were traced to any dealer in the states where the sued dealers are located.

The city’s success provides a model for other jurisdictions. There is also a lesson for Congress, which last year rebuffed Mr. Bloomberg’s effort to win repeal of the so-called Tiahrt amendment, a 5-year-old law that blocks access to a federal database that traces guns used in crime back to particular dealers. The city was able to file its civil lawsuit using trace data collected before the ban. But as time passes, that data will become less and less useful, making it even harder to stop gun dealers whose sleazy conduct results in violence.

 

[BrianB]

The dealer is headed for the more favorable appellate court in an effort to save legal costs and time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_re_us/gun_trial

Much fluff and spin by the Times.

 

[camacho]

Much fluff and spin by the Times.

That's shocking, hey

 

[Janitor]

...the mayor’s larger battle against atrocious federal laws that shield the gun industry...

Bowing to the gun lobby three years ago, Congress ...

...gun dealers whose sleazy conduct results in violence.

Another fine job of yellow journalism.

I really hate the press.

 

[Majic]

For decades NYC has been trying to blame other states, dealers, and gunmakers for their problems with crime. This is just the latest episode.

 

[230RN]

I wonder if MB has stock in NYT.

BTW, I don't think that's yellow journalism. If those quotes appeared in a regular news report, it would be, but this was an editorial, where editors have almost free rein to rant and rave at their leisure and pleasure if they so desire --barring libel and calumny.

But I also wonder if any of the Hearsts have stock in NYT.

By way of explanation for that last wisecrack, I am given to understand that William Randolph Hearst's newspapers had a major role in fomenting the Spanish-American war and gave rise to the expression "yellow journalism."

I believe the quote, "My pretty little war," was attributed to Hearst in reference to that conflict.

Google "yellow journalism" and "remember the Maine."

Many, many papers now follow the Hearst Model of journalism.

Too many, many.

--Terry

 

[Standing Wolf]

Mr. Wallace’s decision paves the way for court appointment of a federal monitor to oversee guns sales at his store.

I wonder how the editors of that so-called "newspaper" would appreciate having federal monitors oversee sales of their propaganda rag. I bet they'd yell and scream and hop up and down about the First Amendment for all they're worth.

That's different, right?

 

[cambeul41]

Illegal guns should be fired.

Without jobs, maybe they will go back to where they came from.

 

[Kind of Blued]

That's a fine point Standing Wolf. Most attacks on Second Amendment rights usually CAN be effectively countered by bringing in the First.

A point which is usually rebutted with "Don't try to change the subject, guns have nothing to do with the First Amendment..."

 

[Orange_Magnum]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will of course attack the car industry next, and sue them for providing cars that drunks cruise around in and then the baseball bat industry for all the wrecked knee caps... and so on and so on. When is it time for the people of NY to sue Mayor Michael Bloomberg for burning tax dollar on nonsense? :banghead:

 

[Larry E]

When the female presidential candidate was here recently she said something to the effect that she didn't think that states like Montana needed the same sorts of registration/restrictions that states like NY did. I wonder how that would work in a federal law? Not well I imagine. Of course the newspaper people thought it was wonderful, but I've got to wonder how they'd feel about their "right" to blather away being registered/restricted.

Maybe "shall not be infringed" means something different to the 'experts' who are called journalists.

 

[siglite]

"illegal guns."

Except for an NFA violation or a filed serial number there's no such animal. Oh, you can have prohibited persons with guns. But that doesn't fit with the "no personal responsibility" of socialist doctrine. The whole purpose of the phrase is to make all guns sound like contraband. And even people legally in possession just happen to legally possess this contraband by some "loophole" in the law, like a gun show.