It didn’t even make a 24-hour news cycle. Gun control advocates truly believe that there are “gun show loopholes” and opportunities to buy guns on every street corner. Some people in my neck of the woods are so possessed with the need to “do something” that they ignore good people who are “doing something” every day. When it happens, the story hits the news…and then whoosh, it’s gone. No story here, m’am, please move along.
This week a small collection of individuals were charged with a variety of crimes stemming from straw purchases made at a Montgomery County gun show. While all are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, one of these folks named Grondin has collected 200 “mostly felony” charges stemming from his initial arrest. It wasn’t just the 19 guns, but the selling of drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and prescription medications that amplified his charge sheets.
What happened? Something wasn’t quite right about these folks, and law-abiding FFLs tipped off law enforcement. Yes, Federal Firearm Licensees generally have good relations with their ATF regulatory counterparts and local law enforcement. They don’t want crimes committed with guns sold by their shops. The FFLs who were involved were sellers at the gun show and had the buyer of the guns fill out a BATFE Form 4473. When they do that, the purchaser is asked if they are the actual buyer or not – and if not, it’s a chargeable offense. Some of these folks will be charged under those rules. Oh – and this happened in Montgomery County, not nearby Philadelphia. As I’ve said before, you pull something like this in MontCo, you’re going to jail.
From the ATF: “In June 2022 Congress passed, and the President signed into law, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BCSA). The BCSA establishes new criminal offenses for the straw purchasing of firearms and strengthens existing federal laws that prohibit the transfer of firearms to those who are legally prevented from owning one. The law increases the maximum terms of imprisonment for straw purchasing to 15 years and a $250,000 fine and up to a 25-year prison sentence if the weapon is used to commit a felony, in an act of terrorism, or a drug trafficking crime.” Remember Grondin’s added drug charges? Others also had related drug charges too. The book is probably going to be thrown at this motley crew.
And whoosh…24 hours after the announcement, it’s hard to find anything more about the story. I think this story should be told far and wide – don’t lie for the other guy really works.
You can’t make this up. Remember last week’s commentary about so-called giggle switches? Folks in neighboring New York State, with help from Bloomberg-funded Everytown have determined that certain “convertible pistols” should be outright banned. As Cam Edwards points out, It’s already illegal under federal law to possess an auto-sear or machine gun conversion device, but with law enforcement around the country reporting a growing number of firearm recoveries where an auto-sear was attached, gun control groups like Everytown see this as an opportunity to go after the firearms and not just the illegal aftermarket accessory.
According to the Wall Street Journal, State Sen. Sen. Zellnor Myrie is the sponsor. His proposed legislation doesn’t name Glock, but he wrote the bill to address Glock pistols because they are easily convertible for machine gun-like fire. The converted guns increasingly have been used in crimes, he said. Yep, that pretty robin’s egg blue Glock you bought for a Mother’s Day gift is a crime waiting to happen!
These people have a goal: to get around the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller and enact a ban on the sale of the most common and popular firearms in the United States. Once they’re no longer allowed to be sold, the next step is to prohibit their possession. As prior legal matters have shown us, New Yorkers are hell-bent on gun control and Constitutional limits on freedom for their residents. They want us to abide too, just like California wants us to abide by their CAFE car emission standards. Not gonna happen.
Much like my commentary about the movie “Minority Report”, it’s not that a law was broken, but these folks want certain laws added because a future crime might happen. What’s next, wooden spoon licensing?
By the way, once again please tell your shooting buddies to make sure they are registered to vote in the General Election in November. As we found out in the last U.S. Senate race, every vote matters. If 150,000 gun owners voted for someone other than the now-junior Senator from our state, the election outcome would have been quite different.
Todd Ellis – President