Whipped Cream Difficulties

I wasn’t going to comment on the WP gun series. I was hoping one of the other gun bloggers would comment on it, and I could just link to it. Frankly, I didn’t feel a need to pressure test my cerebral arteries during my down time; I do enough of that at work. But someone who shall remain nameless issued a challenge to me, and then decided to comment on said series himself and followup on that comment here.

So let’s take a look at part one of the series, shall we? It starts off with a sad story about Erik Kenneth Dixon, a convicted felon who “snapped”, shot his sister in the leg, and killed her boyfriend. Where did he get the gun? His girlfriend bought it for him, from a gun shop called Realco. You know what we call that? A “straw man” purchase, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. You know what happened to the girlfriend who illegally bought the gun for the convicted felon? She “cooperated with prosecutors, who chose not to charge her”. As a matter of fact, the girlfriend called the Maryland State Police nine days before the shooting and told them what she had done; the MSP opened an investigation the same day, but didn’t arrest Dixon until after the shooting.

The WP goes on to observe that the Glock in question was “one of 86 guns sold by Realco that have been linked to homicide cases during the past 18 years”. In that 18 year period, “police have recovered more than 2,500 guns sold by the shop, including over 300 used in non-fatal shootings, assaults and robberies”. When you cite numbers like that, the first question I have is; what percentage of the total sales is that? If Realco is a high volume dealer, is that an unusually high percentage of their volume? How does that compare to other gun shops? And why did the WP pick an 18 year period, anyway? Did they only have access to data going back that far?

The (partial) answer to the percentage question is buried further down in the article.

Realco is listed in the Maryland database as selling 19,000 guns since 1984. Of every 1,000 sold, analysis shows, police later recovered 131.

About five miles away from Realco, near Andrews Air Force Base, is Maryland Small Arms Range Inc. The longtime dealer has sold about 15,000 guns over the past 25 years. For every 1,000 it sold, police later recovered 41.

So that’s about 13% for Realco, and 4% for Maryland Small Arms. Good to know, but that’s just recovered crime guns in the Maryland database (more on that in a bit). Another question: when the WP talks about those 86 guns linked to homicide cases, how many of those homicide cases involved use of the guns in question in self-defense? The WP cites three other homicide cases (which appear to be non-self-defense, from their description, but I haven’t searched the archives yet to confirm this)  involving Realco guns, but doesn’t give us that detail.

Coming back to the main theme of the article, “The Post investigation found that a small percentage of gun stores sells most of the weapons recovered by police in crimes”. Sounds bad, right?

For the most part, these sales are legal, but an unknown number involve persons who buy for those who cannot, including convicted felons such as Dixon, in a process known as a “straw purchase.” Such sales are illegal for the buyer and the store, if it knowingly allows a straw purchase.

So most of the sales are legal, but some are illegal, but the gun stores don’t know about the straw purchases, so it isn’t their fault? Have I got that right? I think so. A recurring theme in part I of the WP article is that Realco and other dealers are scrupulously following the law:

State and federal regulators have documented only minor problems in numerous inspections.

but

“The owners of Realco Guns are cooperative with our detectives and have been compliant with all reporting requirements,” said Maj. Andy Ellis, commander of the public affairs division for Prince George’s police. “It shows a weakness in our system when a company like Realco can adhere to the law yet still be the source of so many crime guns. I can only imagine how much lower our violent-crime rate would be if Realco sold shoes instead of guns.”

In other words, they follow the law, yet, they’re a problem. I can only imagine how much lower Prince George’s violent crime rate would be if the police and prosecutors aggressively prosecuted felons and straw purchasers, Major Ellis, instead of shooting dogs. Or covering up misconduct by their fellow officers.

Let’s go on.

Most experts and ATF officials agree that the number of conscientious dealers far outweighs the minority that break the law. Straw schemes can be hard to detect. A gun traced to a merchant does not necessarily signal that the merchant did anything wrong, the experts say. The number of traces a store generates is shaped by many factors, including the type and number of guns sold, geography, clientele and how clerks vet customers.

What about that database?

To track crime guns in the District and Prince George’s, The Post used public information requests to obtain local police logs listing 76,000 guns recovered by police in the two jurisdictions, then matched the serial numbers against a Maryland database of gun sales.

About 9,400 had no serial numbers and could not be matched. Another 13,300 were rifles or shotguns, which the state does not track. About 44,000 guns were not listed in state sales records, meaning the weapons were probably sold by dealers scattered across the country or had their serial numbers entered into police logs incorrectly.

About 8,700 guns were tracked to the Maryland merchants that last sold them.

I find it interesting that Maryland has a database of gun sales. But let’s look at those numbers: out of the total 76,000 guns that the WP ran in their database search, they were able to track “about 8,700” to dealers in Maryland, or roughly 11% of the total recovered guns.

The WP continues to hammer on Realco: “Realco’s firearms end up at local crime scenes at a rate nearly twice that of any other active Maryland dealer that had 10 or more guns seized.” But, again, is Realco breaking the law?

Asked about Realco, ATF spokeswoman Clare Weber said stores with greater numbers of traces are inspected more frequently.

“The number of traces that come back to a [gun dealer] is not a revocable offense if the dealer is found in compliance with record-keeping requirements,” she said.

Signs point to “No”.

…Maryland State Police officials told The Post they were “taking an aggressive look” at Realco and potential straw purchases. Nothing came of the investigation, records show.

…

Realco was back in the news in August 2007 when D.C. police issued a report that identified the leading sources of crime guns seized in D.C. in 2006 – Realco was No. 1 with 76, three times the number of the next-most-frequent dealer.

That month, prosecutor Ivey joined Jesse L. Jackson’s Rainbow/Push Coalition and others outside Realco in a “protest against illegal guns.” Inside the shop, Maryland State Police pored over Realco’s paperwork. Investigators found little of concern.

Signs still pointing to “No” here.

Joseph R. Vince Jr., who retired from the ATF’s Crime Gun Analysis Branch in 1999 and has worked as an expert for lawyers who represent victims of gun violence,

“lawyers who represent victims of gun violence”? That raises questions in my mind right away.

said the pattern prompts questions.

“If a gun store is bleeding crime guns, you have got to ask yourself what . . . is going on,” Vince said. “I have no problem with somebody being in the firearms business. That is a legitimate business. But why can’t the public be aware of where guns to criminals are coming from?”

“I have no problem with somebody being in the alcohol business. That is a legitimate business. But why can’t the public be aware of where liquor sales to to drunk drivers are coming from?”

“I have no problem with somebody being in the used car business. That is a legitimate business. But why can’t the public be aware of where car sales to repeat traffic offenders are coming from?”

If gun dealers are knowingly and illegally selling guns to criminals, the BATF has the tools to stop those sales. So far, the WP has failed to establish that this is taking place, especially in the case of Realco, or that the tools the BATF has are not up to the task.

I liked something a commenter at Sebastian’s blog said:

So basically you’ve spent the last year putting together an investigative series demonstrating that Realco operates in an area where the local citizenry goes out of its way to circumvent or outright subvert the law. You are then shocked and amazed that people willing to break the law to purchase a weapon that they are legally barred from owning further break the law by using the weapon to murder, maim, or intimidate (which, I believe are also illegal).

Good work folks!

Coming up as time permits, I’m planning to do posts on part 2, part 3, and the online discussions related to this series. I will say that I skimmed over today’s online discussion, and former agent Jim Cavanaugh came across as a surprisingly reasonable and moderate voice.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Clippings, Guns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.