Though that isn't quite the spin put on it by Larry O'Dell of the Associated Press:

Emotional pleas by relatives of Virginia Tech shooting victims failed Friday to persuade a legislative committee to close a loophole that allows criminals and the mentally ill to buy firearms at gun shows.

The House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee voted 13-9 to kill legislation that would require unlicensed sellers at gun shows to conduct criminal background checks on buyers. Such checks now are required only on transactions by federally licensed gun dealers.

Thirty-two people were killed at Virginia Tech on April 16 by a mentally disturbed student who committed suicide as police closed in.

The Committee made the right choice, as the proposed legislation was ignorant, irrelevant and unworkable, just as this article's lede is prejudicial and purposefully misleading.

The "gun show loophole" is mostly a fable, and always has been, with only 2% of guns used in crimes being tracked back to gun shows. Most criminals obtain their firearms from family or friends who obtained firearms legally or illegally from another source.

This proposed legislation would have forced private individuals to conduct background checks on perspective buyers at gun shows, an idea not very well thought out, as it would mean that private individuals would have to turn over sensitive personal information —name, date of birth, address, driver's license number or other form of picture ID, social security numbers (optional, but many buyers don't know that), etc—to other private individuals they don't know and would probably never see again to run though the background check. In this day of increasing identity theft, what could possibly go wrong?

Real criminals, lazy, but not stupid, would certainly be willing to sell a firearm at a gun show for several hundred dollars in exchange for personal information to which they could fraudulently charge thousands. The background check would be done through FFL holders, for an additional fee.

In addition, the background check and associated hassles would only would only be applicable at the gun show, and nowhere else.

Citizens who didn't want to go through the hassle of paperwork would simply complete the transaction at another location, entirely legally. Be honest, would you drive five minutes to save 20-30 minutes of paperwork, and a processing fee?

So would most other people.

It was bad legislation borne of emotionalism, exploited by the cynical, creating serious problems and accomplishing little or nothing.

Gun control forces tried to exploit the still-fresh tragedy of the Virginia Tech massacre to force this legislation through, and went so far as to bring family members of those wounded and killed to plead their case in from of the committee.

The proposed law would not have had any effect on Seung-Hui Cho. None. It would not have saved one life at Virgina Tech.

Cho passed criminal background checks and purchased his pistols from licensed dealers who followed the letter of the law, as O'Dell finally brings himself to mentions in the very last paragraph of his article.

As for O'Dell, his inability to research the critical flaws in this legislation before posting his article is childishly irresponsible. It's too bad the Associated Press couldn't have had a serious, thoughtful journalist write this article, where people might have actually learned something useful.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:07 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 561 words, total size 4 kb.

Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp has decided to implement their own form of gun control, refusing to process credit card transactions between firearms retailers, distributors, and manufacturers, according to a press release issued by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry (h/t Hot Air).

CDNN Sports, Inc, a Texas-based firearms distributor, provided a copy of the notice of termination in which states in part:

We discussed with Mr. Crawford [of CDNN Sports Inc] said termination due to the sale of firearms in a non-face-to-face environment. Keep in mind that a violation of the Gun Control Act occurs when a gun offered online is sold to an individual in another State; the act prohibits selling a handgun to a resident of another state. Shipping across state lines is also banned, yet guns for sale online reach people across the country. We at Citi Merchant Services are unable to monitor or track adherence to these Gun Control laws.

A charitable explanation of this decision would be to state Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp lawyers are grossly incompetent. Online retailers do not sell firearms to individuals, and to suggest otherwise is ignorant, if not duplicitous.

Firearms "purchased" online are shipped from a distributor to a local Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder who has authority to sell firearms from the federal government. Once this FFL holder—typically retail establishments— receive the firearm, all individuals must complete a FBI NICS background check via Form 4473 and/or comply with state and local firearms regulations regarding retail firearms purchase. It is only after these background checks are satisfied that the local retail purchase actually occurs, face-to-face. There is never a direct sale from the online site to a non-FFL holding retail customer, as the termination notice incorrectly states, and does not in any way violate GCA '68.

At worst, this is an attempt at backdoor gun control, preventing manufacturers from shipping firearms to distributors, and from distributors to retailers. In doing so, Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp seem to assert that it is their responsibility to enforce laws, which is a patently absurd position. They are not the FBI nor the BATF, the two federal agencies tasked with enforcing these laws.

The firearms industry, of course, can easily voice their displeasure with their wallets by changing to other credit card transaction processing services that actually employ lawyers capable of understanding the applicable law.

I hope the company or companies that profit from this send Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp lawyers a nice gift basket.

Update: I'll send you over to SayUncle for a response from Citi Merchant Services and First Data, showing that they are, indeed, completely ignorant of the law and how firearms sales are conducted.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:48 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
Post contains 476 words, total size 3 kb.

Abid Jan of dictatorshipwatch.com has posted a link to another image of the firearm used in the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in the comments of this earlier post that identified the weapon as a Steyr M.

Here is the new photo.

This is a much better photo the the grainy picture originally released by the Associated Press, and because of this, the sidearm's distinctive characteristics a a definitive match for the Steyr M-A1 variant, proving the earlier supposition by "karlJ" beyond a reasonable doubt.

Her is a Steyr M-A1 as pulled from the Steyr web site, with three distinguishing characteristics highlighted.

Here is a rotated and magnified version of the picture submitted by Abid Jan, with those same distinguishing characteristics highlighted.

Why would the assassin use a a Steyr M-A1?

Availability is typically a prime concern, as an assassin will use the weapon he has access to, but online research suggests that there is little indication that the M-A1 is normally exported to Pakistan in any numbers, suggesting that this was a purpose-specific acquisition.

The M-A1 is touted by Steyr for its relatively unique trapezoid sighting system, which the company touts as "a new and innovative stepping stone towards quicker target acquisition." The 111-degree grip angle is also said to put the shooter's hand more in-line with the bore of the pistol, reducing upward muzzle movement and enabling faster follow-up shots, and the guns relatively light weight (27oz. empty) theoretically enhances control, allowing faster follow-up shots.

Sadly, at the bottom of the Steyr site in red text are the words NO AUSTRIAN WEAPONS FOUND WITH TERRORISTS!, and a link to a story from last year, where an irresponsible British journalist claimed Steyr HS 50 sniper rifles purchased by Iran were being supplied to terrorists in Iraq, a claim I also debunked.

This time, through no obvious fault of the company, they cannot make that claim.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:25 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 331 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Does the M-A1 fire laser beams?

Posted by: C-C-G at January 03, 2008 09:43 AM (ojkss)

2 Only on the DU. And Kos, Huff Post, etc

Posted by: William Teach at January 03, 2008 12:03 PM (NaHh8)

3 Looks like a pretty solid match, but in the first photo it seems to have a more rounded trigger guard. Perhaps an earlier model?

Posted by: Uncle Pinky at January 03, 2008 01:38 PM (5mmSd)

4 I think from the trigger guard's shape it looks like the original M rather than the M-A1, a much newer model. Scroll down a bit to see the picture from the earlier post. Even the newer model, however, shoots 9mm Parabellum, not laser beams.

Posted by: karlJ at January 03, 2008 06:20 PM (Kg2UJ)

5 I don't agree that the pistol's origin necessarily points to a purpose specific acquisition. It would be available to anyone willing to buy black market arms. Whether it was opium derived Taliban money, or came out of the ISI's budget is unknown, but she was wanted dead by lots of people with the means to get this sort of thing. Last time I was in that general area, a quality pistol sold for about $1300. This is well within the budgets of any number of bad actors. With AK-47's going for about $150 in much of that part of the world (can't say for Pakistan specifically), pistols are a major status symbol, and European weapons doubly so. The marketing talk about the sights is just that. I've used them, and while usable they are hardly a leap forward. Most serious users replace them with standard post and notch style.

Posted by: karlJ at January 03, 2008 06:37 PM (Kg2UJ)

Hide Comments | Add Comment