Sessions calls on U.S. attorneys to aggressively prosecute gun buyers who lie on background checks

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Washington Post

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that U.S. attorneys will more aggressively enforce the law that makes it a crime for gun buyers to lie on their federal background checks, one of several steps Justice Department officials outlined as part of the Trump administration’s response to last month’s deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

The Justice Department also will increase the presence of law enforcement officers at schools and continue to review the way law enforcement agencies respond to tips from the public, Sessions said.

“No child should have to fear going to school or walking the streets of their neighborhood,” Sessions said in a statement.

Lying on a federal background check when purchasing a firearm is a felony that can be punished by up to five years in prison, but the crime is rarely prosecuted, according to current and former Justice Department officials. Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to “swiftly and aggressively” prosecute cases against people who are prohibited from having firearms and lie on a federal form to pass the background check.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-calls-on-us-attorneys-to-aggressively-prosecute-gun-buyers-who-lie-on-background-checks/2018/03/12/f361a43c-1cd7-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html?utm_term=.a3a289e6ea5e&wpisrc=al_news__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1

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You mean like do their fucking job?

[underpants]

1. Rarely prosecuted due to fear of NRA lawsuits and bad press

There was a great article in Fortune magazine about "Fast and Furious" a few years ago. One part pointed out that all ATF or any other organization operation continually loop back to legal because they are scared to death of being sued by NRA deep pockets and/or bad press.

Here ya go
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2012/06/27/the-truth-about-the-fast-and-furious-scandal

In part because of these notorious cases, the bureau has operated in a self-protective crouch. It has stuck to small single-defendant cases to the detriment of its effort to combat gun trafficking, the Justice Department’s inspector general found in a review of ATF cases from 2007 to 2009. To refocus its efforts, the ATF established Group VII and the other Southwest border units to build big, multi-defendant conspiracy cases and target the leaders of the trafficking operations.

[GWC58]

3. Except when it has to do with the use of cannabis.

The NRA, it turns out, is dead set against its use. But they are okay with alcohol use and firearms. Yeah, that makes perfect sense, right?

[metalbot]

19. There are two separate issues

One is that cartels use straw purchasers to buy weapons that go south. That's a hard problem, and it's addressed in the article.

The other issue is that people lie on NICS forms, get caught lying, and then are not prosecuted. These aren't cases where someone is lying about a straw purchase, because those are lies that NICS absolutely can't detect. However, there are about 30,000 incidents per year in which the NICS system blocks someone from purchasing a firearm because they have criminal records. On average, the justice department prosecutes about 30 of these per year.

So either one of two things is happening here:

1. NICS is blocking people who are NOT prohibited, in which case the "success story" of NICS blocking 1M+ firearms purchases by felons probably ought to be rewritten.

2. NICS is blocking prohibited people, and nobody is following up on the fact that felons are committing new felonies, and are actively trying to buy guns.

I'm fairly sure that #2 is not the fault of "they are scared of the NRA", because the NRA isn't going to sue over the justice department arresting a convicted felon trying to by a gun.

The straw purchase issue is much, much harder to prosecute on, because you have to prove that someone is purchasing the firearms on behalf of someone who can't. If someone purchases 10 assault rifles over a weekend, what are you going to do? Get a warrant from a judge to search their house, telling the judge in the warrant application "we expect to NOT find 10 assault rifles". Even if such a warrant were granted, and no rifles were found, the defendant simply says "they aren't at my house", and invokes their right to remain silent. But NONE of this scenario has anything to do with NICS detecting people who lie on background checks.

[Red Mountain]

2. Why lie?

Sessions would like you to believe he cares. You'd have to be an idiot.

Gun show loophole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Gun show loophole, gun law loophole, Brady law loophole (or Brady bill loophole), private sale loophole, and private sale exemption are terms in the United States referring to sales of firearms by private sellers, including those done at gun shows, dubbed the "secondary market".[1] The term refers to the concept that a loophole in federal law exists, under which "any person may sell a firearm to an unlicensed resident of the state where they reside, as long as they do not know or have reasonable cause to believe the person is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms".[2][3][4]

Under federal law, private-party sellers are not required to perform background checks on buyers; whether at a gun show or other venue. They also are not required to record the sale, or ask for identification. This requirement is in contrast to sales by gun stores and other Federal Firearms License (FFL) holders who are required to record all sales and perform background checks on almost all buyers, regardless of whether the venue is their business location or a gun show within their state. Access to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is limited to FFL holders.




Eventually, terrorists will exploit our broken system to do their worst.

[Barn Owl]

4. Universal background checks

Requiring private parties to do a background check for a private sale would be next to impossible to enforce.

[Hoyt]

6. Thats why private sales need to go through FFL. Sell without one, and go to jail

for gun trafficking if caught, or accessory to murder if buyer shoots innocent person.

[Barn Owl]

7. Still not enforceable

For any weapon in most cases that was made prior to the law taking effect and that is about 400 million in this country now.

They can tell when the weapon was made if made prior to the law you can't prove it was sold after the law took effect or 10 years prior.

[Hoyt]

11. Not true, typical gunner obsfucation. Even if it were, might as well start now so future

guns will fall under requirements.

[Barn Owl]

12. You are wrong

It is very true. You would have to be tied to the weapon after the the law taking effect. Then it could be proven you sold it without a background check.

The 70 guns I have now most are not tied to me in anyway. So it could never be proven I sold them to begin with let alone if I did a background check.

Eventually they will all go to my son and will be off the books for him as well.

[Hoyt]

17. Go through an FFL. Your "70 Guns" likely influence your position. You are another

example of why we need to start registration, require all gun sales to go through an FFL, and also impose restrictions on the number of weapons people can have.

[NickB79]

15. Most gun show tables are now run by vendors with FFL's

Lots of gun shows are now too scared to rent space to guys without them, or just charge so much that it makes it unaffordable for guys only selling a few guns. And if you have an FFL, you have to perform a check.

The last time I bought a gun at a gun show was over 10 years ago, and even then it was from a vendor who did a background check on me right there over the phone.

[Hoyt]

18. Yeah, but there are still white wingers unloading guns in the parking lot and gun shows

in most states can rent tables -- and many still do (guns are a business of unscrupulous profiteers) -- to people who are not in the regular business of trafficking guns.

It's been decades since I've gone to a gun show -- don't like the white wingers that make up about 95% of drooling customers and confederate/nazi/similar paraphernalia -- but I doubt much has changed because the attendees have just gotten worse.

I'd even require a background check to get in the parking lot.

[NickB79]

20. No argument here

I've owned guns all my life and I'm fine with UBC's.

[7962]

5. Your line; exactly. So they need to be TOLD to "do their fucking job"??? Jeeze

At least he's SAYING it. lets see if it actually happens

[Calista241]

9. They've been saying this for years.

Especially when it comes to crime in Chicago. "If they would only prosecute the people they pick up with guns, Chicago would be the safest place on earth" or something to that effect.

[Barn Owl]

10. If you are a felon

And you get caught with a gun it is 5 years in a federal pen. Haveing tbe gun also means receipt of the gun that is another 5 years.

That is separate from state charges and no early release and is served separate from state time.

If they actually enforced the gun laws on the books we would have to build more prisons because alot of bad people would be going away for decades and that would be a good thing.

[7962]

16. Or it makes some think twice about having a gun.

Due to the work I've been in, I've been around a couple unsavory characters. Drug dealers, basically. Just person to person types. I knew one of them had a gun and I asked if he was worried about being caught with it (hes not a felon, or wasnt at that time.) He said "Oh, I dont ever have it in the car if I'm doing any "business". Thats something they wont bargain with". So for THAT guy, the threat of the law DID work.

[SergeStorms]

8. Better watch out there Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.....

your owner, the NRA, doesn't take kindly to anyone standing in the way of anybody owning as many guns as they desire in the good ol' U.S. of A. You'll get your ass spanked, Beau!

[3Hotdogs]

13. Broken clock .... somethin' Beauregard somethin' twice a day.

[NickB79]

14. This has been a well-known problem since the 1990's

With hundreds of thousands of felons walking free because of lack of enforcement.

Better late than never, I guess.