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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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NYC sues national gun dealers
Quote:
MIKE HITS GUN SLINGERS
By DAVID SEIFMAN and STEPHANIE GASKELL
LINK
May 16, 2006 -- Accusing federal officials of shirking their duty to halt illegal weapon sales, Mayor Bloomberg filed the city's own lawsuit yesterday against 15 gun dealers nationwide that have "New Yorkers' blood on their hands."
"These dealers are the worst of the worst," declared Bloomberg in announcing the suit, which will use evidence from an undercover video sting operation.
He said more than 500 guns recovered at crime scenes here between 1994 and 2001 were traced back to the "rogue" dealers.
John Feinblatt, the mayor's criminal-justice coordinator, didn't hold back as he explained why the city was taking matters into its own hands.
"Plain and simple, these dealers have New Yorkers' blood on their hands," he charged.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the body count exacted by the out-of-state arms bazaar is clearly evident.
"The price that New Yorkers pay for illegal guns on the street was captured last week by the front-page picture of the New York Post," he said. "It showed a New York City police sergeant desperately trying to save the life of a dying 3-year-old."
Kelly said the gun used to kill that Brooklyn toddler, Tajmere Clark, was made in Germany, transported to Florida and then shipped to a gun dealer in South Carolina. Authorities are investigating how it wound up in New York.
And the mayor came armed with a litany of grief, too - an extensive list of crimes linked to guns sold by each dealer - as proof of the damage suffered by New Yorkers at the hands of the out-of-state dealers.
Guns tracked from one dealer, Woody's Pawnshop in Orangeburg, S.C., were tied to 98 separate crimes, including the November 2001 murder of a 31-year-old Brooklyn man found with multiple gunshot wounds.
In another instance, a gun from A-1 Jewelry & Pawn of Augusta, Ga., was linked to the attempted murder of two cops on Aug. 17, 2001 in Queens. The suspect, a 28-year-old Bronx man, fired at the uniformed officers and was charged with attempted murder.
A gun that was sold at the Mickalis Pawn Shop in Summerville, S.C. wound up in the hands of a 12-year-old boy, who accidentally shot someone in the chest on Jan. 7, 2001 in Manhattan.
Kelly said he and the mayor had visited too many shot cops at hospitals.
"We've seen uniforms totally drenched in blood to the point where they're unrecognizable," Kelly said.
The city's lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn federal court, also cited seven gun-related incidents published in The Post's Police Blotter between April 1 and April 5.
City officials hired teams of private investigators from the James Mintz Group to pose as gun buyers in five states - Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia - that supply half the illegal weapons grabbed here.
With a hidden video camera rolling, the male investigator would ask about a gun, ply the dealer with questions and when it came time to make the purchase ask his female partner to fill out the paperwork.
Bloomberg said that constitutes a "straw purchase," which is illegal because federal law prohibits the sale of firearms to people the dealer has a "reasonable belief" aren't the intended end user.
The targeted dealers insisted they abide by the law.
Gun dealers argue that they shouldn't be held to account for weapons after they leave their shops, in the same way that auto dealers aren't blamed when vehicles they sell get into accidents.
Eric Wallace of Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Ga. - cited as the source of 21 guns used in crimes here - said he's sold about 70,000 guns in the last 10 years.
"The mayor is painting a picture with a very broad brush," he said. "It's a shame. I don't think the mayor has done his homework."
The city is asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages that Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo said would easily runs into the millions of dollars.
To prevent further illegal sales, the city also wants a monitor named to oversee each of the 15 shops.
The data released by the city came from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, an agency the mayor accused of falling down on the job.
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This makes absolutely no sense to me. It to me means that people will be able to one day sue car dealers for selling cars to drunk drivers.
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