Political Quotes

“the Brady law has been very successful. The federal law that requires background checks on deals conducted by federally licensed firearms dealers has prevented more than 470,000 prohibited persons from purchasing firearms. Unfortunately, the Brady law is not the only law enforcement tool needed to prevent felons from purchasing firearms. Straw purchases are probably the best-known way around the Brady law. Straw purchases occur when a buyer with a clean record is hired to purchase a gun for someone who is prohibited by law from buying the gun or does not want to be traced. Often times, this is how gun trafficking is facilitated. Firearms are bought in the legal marketplace, and then transferred directly to the secondary market, where there are virtually no restrictions. A new report issued by Senator Schumer shows that most guns used in crimes are purchased in this secondary market. According to the report, which analyzed data compiled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, in 13 percent of crimes, the crime gun could be traced to the original buyer and in 87 percent of the crimes, the gun had transferred hands. Many of the time, these crime guns can be traced back to a small percentage of high volume dealers, who are willing to sell a single person a large quantity of firearms. Guns bought in these large quantities are often characterized by a short ``time to crime,'' or a short period between the sale and time they are used in criminal acts.”