Of course if we did this and blogged it, we would be talking to the ATFE in short order.
Now it seems CNN is claiming a Texas resident bought the rifle.
So, now we have a strawman transaction, and two ( or maybe three ) felonies, in my opinion.
Yes,
a straw purchase is another felony, and having a Texas resident make
the purchase is enough to take the seller completely off the
hook. The only thing a private seller can do is check ID to make
sure the buyer is in the same state, and a straw purchase from a Texan
is enough to beat that check. The Texan, however, is also in
trouble to the tune of a felony.They should have just run the story
using their Texan stooge as the reporter, then it would have all been
legal. Too late now.
UPDATE: A couple people have misunderstood this post. If CNN used
a Texas resident to make the purchase, the SELLER of the firearm is off
the hook for the GCA violation unless the BATFE can prove he know about
the straw sale.
The straw sale is itself illegal, meaning that the ACTUAL BUYER has
still committed every felony I listed, and the STRAW BUYER has
committed, at a minimum, conspiracy to violate those same laws and most
likely a seperate law explicitly forbidding straw sales. The
seller may be OK. The CNN reporter is still screwed, and so is
his straw man.
UPDATE: Just to make it clear, the only real evidence we have for the
straw purchase angle is the post by kbarrett, and he was NOT a primary
source for that. Consider this part unconfirmed speculation.
UPDATE: One more clarification. According to XLRQ's analysis,
a straw sale, if it took place, is only illegal if there's a form-4473
involved, which there probably was not. Purchasing the rifle out
of your state of residence and transporting the rifle back to your
state of residence without using an FFL is still problematic.
This entry was published Sat Sep 24 10:43:35 CDT 2005 by TriggerFinger
and last updated 2005-09-24 10:43:35.0.
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