Farmer said improper sales, such as the ones that the undercover agents pulled off, happen frequently. If the buyer can produce valid identification, passes a background check and takes legal responsibility for the gun, the sale will go through, he said.This is pretty much what I expected to find: No crimes are being committed by the gun dealer's targeted in Bloomberg's "sting"--only routine procedures followed when one person gives another the gift of a gun.
"It's the same scenario repeated many, many, many times," Farmer said. "Husbands buy guns for their wives, boyfriends buy for their girlfriends, fathers buy for their daughters."
Here's another account from a pawn shop in South Carolina:
The woman filled out papers registering the sale and signed a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declaration saying she was the buyer and buying for someone else, he said.It appears these dealers were following the book to conduct a legal sale in both instances. It wouldn't surprise me to find this chain of events repeat itself in all 15 of the instances Bloomberg would have us believe resulted in "illegal gun sales," where dealers knew the purchasers "would turn the weapons over to criminals."
Men routinely advise women on what guns to buy, Mickalis said, adding "I think they were specifically sent here to create a lawsuit."
Is someone intentionally lying here?
If any lawbreaking has occurred, it appears to have been within the Bloomberg "sting team" camp.
Was the federal gun purchase form falsified?
Were the "agents," that is, private investigators, that is, private citizens with no special privileges and immunities, residents of the states in which they made their purchases? If not, is this a violation of GCA '68, which prohibits, among other things, unlicensed individuals from acquiring handguns outside their state of residence?