The ATF has released a list of the five “worst” gun dealers in the country– that is, the five gun dealers who sell the most guns traced to crimes.
In a rare release of information the gun industry has tried to keep secret, the Justice Department has revealed data naming the gun dealers who rank as the five leading sellers of guns traced to crimes.
The release came in connection with a lawsuit brought by one of those gun sellers in California seeking to prevent revocation of its federal firearms license, and as Congress is considering legislation that would weaken the ability of federal law enforcement agencies to take action against reckless gun sellers.
Each of the five dealers, the court documents show, had an average of more than one gun recovered in crime every day of the year in 2005. By contrast, 86 percent of gun dealers in America have no crime guns traced to their stores in a typical year.
Just 1.2 percent of gun dealers supply 57 percent of all crime guns recovered across the nation.
More that one gun every day! That’s crazy! But it proves what we already knew about these screwy gun dealers– that it’s only a small percentage of them who supply criminals with guns. So who are they?
The dealers named: Badger Outdoors, West Milwaukee, Wisconsin – 537 Crime Guns; Trader Sports, San Leandro, California – 447 Crime Guns (which is the subject of the government’s case); Elliot’s Small Arms, Jefferson, Louisiana – 442 Crime Guns; Don’s Guns and Galleries, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana – 431 Crime Guns and Hyatt Coin & Gun Shop, Inc., Charlotte, North Carolina – 405 Crime Guns. A chart of these dealers can be found at bradycenter.org.
The Brady Center has also dropped a press release on this, with a little more background on how the data came out.
The crime gun data is in court papers filed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a unit of the Justice Department, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in a lawsuit brought by the second worst crime gun dealer, Trader Sports, seeking to prevent revocation of its federal firearms license. Although ATF revoked Trader Sports’ license in 2004 after citing it for “thousands of violations” of federal law, weak federal gun laws have allowed the shop to stay open since then.
Of course, we’re sure the gun lobby isn’t thrilled with any of this. They’d rather this kind of stuff remain in the dark, because they want these guns to reach criminal hands. Why? Because every gun sold, no matter to whom or by whom, just means money signs to them.
In an effort to protect gun dealers from scrutiny, the gun lobby is pushing federal legislation, H.R. 5092, to gut ATF’s authority to revoke gun dealers’ federal firearms licenses. The legislation would make it virtually impossible to shut down rogue dealers and would require courts to allow dealers like Trader Sports to continue operating after their licenses have been revoked, through years of additional litigation. In Trader Sports’ court filing, it specifically urges Congress to pass H.R. 5092 to limit what it calls “abusive inspections” of gun dealers.
“The Bush Administration’s own data shows that a few rogue gun dealers are supplying the crime guns that threaten our communities,” said Dennis Henigan, Legal Director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “Congress should work to shut down corrupt gun dealers instead of coddling them.”
“Rather than hiding the truth and gutting ATF’s ability to enforce federal law, Congress must give law enforcement officials the tools they need to quickly identify the rogue gun dealers who do such damage to our communities by supplying firearms to gun traffickers and criminals who cannot pass background checks,” said Griffin Dix, President of the California Million Mom March chapters of the Brady Campaign.
Sounds about right to us. Hiding information like this hurts law enforcement, instead of helping them do their jobs and keep guns off the street. The only people who stand to profit off of hiding it is the gun lobby, and we all know what they think about gun violence.
