Tag Archive: Straw Purchases


Giving A Gun As A Gift? Here’s What You Need To Know

 

 

” It’s that time of year again. As one who preaches the faith, so to speak, I will occasionally give a gun as a present. Doing so can be a bit of a hassle. At the very least, you have to consider how you are procuring the firearm, how you are transporting it, and the legal status of the whoever is receiving the gift.

  The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the lobby arm for the gun makers and retailers, brought up the topic just before Thanksgiving.

  NSSF spokesman Bill Brassard wrote, “The first question you have to ask is whether the intended recipient can legally own the firearm where he or she lives.” Understanding the answer can be tricky, but it will keep the recipient (and you, too) from a potentially felonious gift exchange.  The NSSF article points to the ATF’s page as a reference.  While the ATF’s page isn’t the most user friendly, it is authoritative.  The ATF’s page of frequently answered firearms transfer questions is also useful.”

 

 

More at Guns.com . Give the gift that keeps on giving …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Police Chief Killed With Rifle Lost In ATF Gun-Tracking Program

 

 

 

 

A high-powered rifle lost in the ATF’s Fast and Furious controversy was used to kill a Mexican police chief in the state of Jalisco earlier this year, according to internal Department of Justice records, suggesting that weapons from the failed gun-tracking operation have now made it into the hands of violent drug cartels deep inside Mexico.

Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the police chief in the city of Hostotipaquillo, was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire. Also killed was one of his bodyguards. His wife and a second bodyguard were wounded.

Hundreds of firearms were lost in the Fast and Furious operation. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed illegal purchasers to buy the firearms at the Lone Wolf store in the Phoenix suburb and other gun shops in hopes of tracing them to Mexican cartel leaders.

The WASR used in Jalisco was purchased on Feb. 22, 2010, about three months into the Fast and Furious operation, by 26-year-old Jacob A. Montelongo of Phoenix. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy, making false statements and smuggling goods from the United States and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

Court records show Montelongo personally obtained at least 109 firearms during Fast and Furious. How the WASR ended up in the state of Jalisco, which is deep in central Mexico and includes the country’s second-largest metropolis, Guadalajara, remained unclear.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Police: Christmas Eve Firefighter Shooter Used ‘Straw Purchaser’ To Acquire Weapons

 

 

 

 

” The 62-year-old convicted felon who gunned down two firefighters and wounded three first responders on Christmas Eve in Webster, New York used weapons his neighbor illegally purchased for him, according to state and federal authorities.

The neighbor, 24-year-old Dawn Nguyen, was arrested on Friday after police traced the serial numbers on two weapons used by William Spengler, the shooter: a Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun, both purchased in 2010.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed straw purchasers to illegally purchase approximately 2,000 firearms as and transport them across the United States’ southern border as part of Operation Fast and Furious, in an apparent attempt to track the guns to high-level officials in Mexico’s drug cartels.

None of those top officials has been arrested, and the operation has led to the deaths of an estimated 300 Mexican nationals and at least one U.S. Border Patrol agent. (RELATED: Univision report connects Operation Fast and Furious scandal to murders of Mexican teenagers) “