Anti-gun group claims firearms retailers are "flooding America's streets with

crime guns"

Americans for Gun Safety Foundation (AGS) the anti-gun group which attempts to portray itself as being “middle of the road” on the gun issue, got considerable media coverage in late January with the release of a report accusing firearms retailers in 22 states of “flooding America’s streets with crime guns.”

“AGS believes the public has a right to know if high-crime gun dealers are operating in their community and what steps the Dept. of Justice/ATF is taking to regulate, shut down and/or prosecute these potentially dirty dealers,” says the report.  However, upon closer inspection, the report’s findings turn out to be nothing more than misleading hype intended to drum up support for gun control among the general populace.

Among the retailers named in the report is Spring, Texas-based Carter’s Shooting Center, Inc., operator of four Carter’s Country retail stores in the Houston, TX area.  Owner Bill Carter, who has been in business for over 44 years, says the report unfairly targets dealers with high sales volumes and is the work of an anti-gun organization intent on smearing the names of honest gun dealers.  “This is a play on numbers for an anti-gun lobby to make gun dealers look bad,” Carter said.

The report lists 120 retailers that were the source of at least 200 gun traces between 1996 and 2000.  Carter’s is listed as number 39 on the list with 479 gun traces and one inspection that resulted in three violations.  Carter said the violations were for minor errors by customers on federal 4473 forms.

Two other stores in Texas were on the list:  Bachman Pawn and Guns of Dallas with 353 traces and J&W Gunsmith in Kemp with 216 traces.

The top three retailers on the list are Chuck’s Guns in Riverdale, IL with 2370 traces; Don’s Guns & Galleries, Inc. in Indianapolis, IN, with 2,294; and Badger Outdoors, Inc. of West Milwaukee, WI with 1,906.

The ATF data used in the AGS report was released as a result of the unsuccessful 1999 lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) against the gun industry. 

One of the goals of the report’s release was to prod the ATF into conducting more inspections of retailers.  This was revealed by Deborah Barron, an AGS spokeswoman who said, “We’re calling for a watch list because we don’t know enough about these dealers, and we’re saying they need to be watched.”

However, the U.S. Dept. of Justice, of which ATF is a part, has a different point of view.

“We’re shutting down and prosecuting corrupt gun dealers in higher numbers,” says Mark Carallo, director of public affairs for the Justice Dept.  “Since 2000, the number of dealers charged with violating gun laws has risen 150 percent and cases brought against dealers have nearly tripled.  More than 100 dealers have had their licenses revoked in recent years, and many more surrendered their licenses or closed their doors after our inspections.”

“This apparently hasn’t registered with the AGS.  It relied on out-of-date and incomplete information to draw conclusions that the evidence just doesn’t support about gun traces and this administration’s prosecution of gun crimes,” Corallo continued.  “Firearms licensees who have guns traced back to them have not necessarily broken the law.  Basic math explains that those who sell more guns and those located in or near high-crime neighborhoods, or where police trace all crime guns in their custody, will have higher number of traces.” 

“The most common way criminals get firearms is through straw purchases, rather than from dealers.  That’s why we aggressively pursue and prosecute these criminals.  Also, AGS completely ignores the fact that more than 95 percent of gun prosecutions are handled by state and local law enforcement agencies.” Corallo concluded.

According to USA Today, there were 197 cases of gun trafficking prosecuted in 2002.  ATF has 460 field inspectors, about one for every 225 firearm retailers.  As a result, about 5 percent of FFLs are inspected annually.  Federal gun prosecutions rose 23 percent last year.

The second most-cited dealer on the list, with 2,294 traces, had only one ATF citation during the period studied.  AGS holds itself out to be the Switzerland of gun politics, but its report waves a different flag.

Court rules foreign convictions don’t count

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that foreign convictions should not be counted towards previous offenses when considering harsher penalties for arms possession under the federal Gun Control Act. 

In making the ruling, the court determined that the U. S. Congress did not intend to include foreign convictions under the felon-in-possession section of the law, which prohibits a person from possessing a firearm if “convicted in any court” of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison.

The ruling is not likely to have effect in other jurisdictions however.