"But your Honor, the price was cheap and it was only a single shot rifle"
FROM AN UPCOMING CRPA NEWSLETTER COLUMN.
GUN SHOW "STINGS" NET MOSTLY "SOFT" TARGETS
Recently federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities
have stepped up efforts to enforce firearms laws, particularly at gun
shows in California and bordering states. The California Department of
Justice Firearms Division, county and local law enforcement officials,
(particularly the LAPD Gun Unit), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives all attend guns shows in California and in
neighboring states too. There are uniformed officers present, as well as
civilian informants and undercover plain clothes law enforcement
officers who conduct "stings," typically by enticing gun buyers or
sellers to forego the legal requirement that gun sales be processed
through a licensed gun dealer. Often, rare guns are offered at "too good
to be true" prices in order to seduce the "stingee."
Police also monitor Shotgun News, Gun List, and other trade
magazines, and even run ads themselves sometimes, to likewise sting
unwitting participants. State police have been known to follow cars with
California plates back across state lines and arrest the occupants for
"importing" "assault weapons" or "high capacity" magazines, etc. from
out of state gun shows. Suspects typically have their businesses and
residences searched, and all of their firearms seized.
Many of these efforts are being funded with DROS fees, or with
federal crime prevention funds earmarked to be used to prosecute violent
felons. While many of the efforts of these agencies are laudable, the
people being arrested and prosecuted are usually not violent felons.
They typically have no prior criminal record and are often solid citizens.
Frequently, the arrests are the unfortunate result of an overly
complex regulatory scheme that leaves many gun owners unaware of their
legal obligations and makes them sitting ducks for police, who sometimes
use the arrests to inflate their statistics and seek additional funding.
As CRPA has previously reported, even Governor Schwarzenegger recently
took note of the overwhelming complexity of California firearms laws and
recommended clearing them up before passing more laws.
Every violation of the law, however inadvertent, that is detected
at a gun show or elsewhere is politicized and ultimately used by the gun
ban lobby to advance its cultural and political war against civilian
firearms ownership in general, and to urge an end to gun shows in
particular.
CRPA has 2005 California gun law summaries available.
Calgunlaws.com also has free information available. Please help get the
word out that gun show attendees need to educate themselves about the
law and to be careful not to violate it. As Benjamin Franklin once
said: "Experience is hard school, but fools will learn in no other."
In other words, learn the law beforehand, rather than learning it as a
result of being prosecuted criminally.
If you are approached about an illegal transaction: Do not equivocate -
refuse to participate!