October 8, 2009, 08:34 AM
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#1
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Junior member
Join Date: May 16, 2008
Posts: 9,995
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Gun show loophole
I know several responsible shooters who avoid these shows because they don't want to be involved in anyway with supporting it.
I thought it was interesting that 1/3 of private individuals were unwilling to sell, whereas only 1/17 licensed dealers were. There are ALWAYS uniformed officers mulling around the Bill Goodman shows.
I hope they pull all the licenses at least if they have video evidence against them.
Front page of Dayton Daily News print edition.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs...w_targett.html
Quote:
Bill Goodman’s gun show targeted in New York undercover investigation
By Lou Grieco | Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 12:00 PM
DAYTON — An undercover investigation funded by the City of New York found weapons were sold illegally at seven gun shows in three states — including at Bill Goodman’s Gun and Knife Show at Hara Arena — Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Wednesday, Oct. 7.
This undercover video was released with the report:
“The gun show loophole is a deadly serious problem — and this undercover operation exposes just how pervasive and serious it is,” Bloomberg said. “This is an issue that has nothing to do with the Second Amendment; it’s about keeping guns from criminals, plain and simple.”
From May to August, 40 private investigators went to gun shows in Ohio, Tennessee and Nevada, including Goodman shows in Trotwood, Sharonville and Nashville. Both licensed and unlicensed gun dealers were willing to sell firearms to detectives posing either as people admitting they could not pass a background check or as obvious “straw buyers” for criminals.
Investigators approached two private sellers and two licensed dealers at the May 2-3 Hara show, all of whom failed the “integrity tests,” according to an investigation report issued by Bloomberg’s office.
Overall, only 11 of 33 private sellers and one of 17 licensed dealers approached at the seven shows passed those tests, the report said.
Gun show promoter Dave Goodman, son of founder Bill Goodman, did not return phone calls seeking comment Wednesday.
Hara spokeswoman Karen Wampler said Goodman has been renting Hara facilities for more than 30 years, and “in that time, we are not aware of any violations involving the licensed dealers at the Dayton show, where there are weapon checks at the entrance, 24-hour security and a strong and continuing (federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) presence.”
“If there is evidence of dealer wrongdoing, it should be immediately turned over to the ATF, at which time the promoter of the show, Dave Goodman, assures us that he will immediately and irrevocably remove the violator from the show.”
The report generated by the investigation, Gun Show Undercover, is available on the city’s website, at http://www.nyc.gov/gunshow. Bloomberg said the city would be sending it to every member of Congress, and urged Congress to pass legislation closing the “gun-show loophole,” which gun control proponents say allows people to buy guns without a background check at the shows.
The National Rifle Association has long said there is no such thing as a “gun-show loophole” and that new legislation would be pointless, as most people who sell guns at the shows are licensed dealers, who are already required to do background checks.
The investigators went to the shows to see whether sellers would engage in two types of illegal transactions. The first involves private sellers selling guns to people who they thought could not pass a federal background check. The investigators would offer to purchase a weapon, then tell the seller that they probably couldn’t pass a background check.
The second involves licensed dealers conducting illegal straw sales, which are sales made to accomplices posing as buyers in order to help the real buyer avoid a criminal background check. In those cases, a male investigator played the role of a person who wanted to buy a gun but couldn’t, and a female investigator played the role of the “straw” buyer who would purchase it for him.
According to the report, investigators visited the Goodman show at Hara on May 2-3. They approached two private sellers and two licensed dealers. All failed the “integrity tests,” according to the report. Overall, only 11 of 33 private sellers and one of 17 licensed dealers approached at the seven shows passed those tests, the report said.
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