Saturday, November 5, 2011

Gun store owners, feds fight in court over new requirement to report sales of multiple rifles

Feds lied & people died, to make an excuse to ban your guns
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer questioned whether monitoring lawful gun sales is an appropriate way to stop the flow of guns to Mexican gangs. The requirement was imposed amid controversy over ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious which tried to track guns suspected of being bought by straw purchasers back to gun-smuggling ringleaders, who have long eluded law enforcement. But ATF agents lost track of 1,400 of the more than 2,000 guns identified by Fast and Furious as possibly straw purchases...
Stephen Halbrook, an attorney for Arizona-based gun dealers J & G Sales and Foothills Firearms, said previously the stores only had to turn over the data they collect on buyers — including birth dates, addresses, race and gender — in the course of a criminal investigation. He said the new requirement creates a federal database of gun buyers in violation of their privacy.
“We don’t deny the fact there is a serious problem (of guns getting into Mexico) and it needs to be dealt with,” Halbrook said, but he said the problem should be fought using more traditional law enforcement methods instead of “just a fishing expedition” to collect the personal data of buyers without probable cause.
Collyer asked whether ATF would have the authority to require the stores to report when someone buys 30 AK-47 assault rifles, and he said even then the requirement would exceed the agency’s authority from Congress and the Constitution. But he said gun sellers would typically report such a sale as suspicious.
James Vogts, attorney for the National Shooting Sports Foundation that also is suing the ATF, said the requirement applies to 8,500 dealers in the four states who have not been connected to guns recovered in Mexico. “I think the decision was hastily made, perhaps for political reasons,” he said...
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Full story @ Washington Post Politics
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Follow up from earlier "Outrage" post (and more) on this blog.  The evidence indicates the order originated from the highest levels to lie, cheat, and more to justify another unconstitutional gun ban in the USA, no matter who was hurt or killed in the process, the end justifying the means...(S9)

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