One-Gun-a-Month Flip Flops

The NJ Star-Ledger is pleading with Virginia not to re-open the “Iron Pipeline” by repealing its gun rationing law, but this previous editorial from the same paper notes that it never really closed, and suggests that most of New Jersey’s guns come from Pennsylvania and Virginia even though Virginia has a one-gun-a-month law. I don’t think the frequency that Virginia is cited as a source state for guns has diminished any as a result of their law.

This study of trafficking from the FBI in 1998 highlights the problem:

The straw purchase serves as another method often employed by an illegal firearms trafficker who cannot legally purchase firearms. Most traffickers use a series of straw purchasers directed to various firearms licensees. A common scenario entails the firearm trafficker accompanying the straw purchaser into the firearms store to pay for the purchase while the straw purchaser completes the paperwork. Store video surveillance can verify this type of purchase.

The problem is that the straw purchase rings, to the extent that they exist, aren’t stupid, and know to how to route around current trafficking detection practices. It’s relatively easy to route around others. Where there’s a high demand for a product, there’s going to be supply to meet that demand. You might be able to drive price higher with interdiction, but only to a point.

5 thoughts on “One-Gun-a-Month Flip Flops”

  1. As a former resident of New Jersey, I’ve got a letter to the editor of the Star Ledger I’m sending tonight.

  2. I wonder if we can get MikeB302000 to chime in on this. He admits to owning guns criminally in New Jersey. I bet he can shine a light on the so-called “Iron Pipeline”

  3. Arguably neither my wife nor I can be alone in the same room with each other’s guns in NJ…

    Anyway, as noted, straw purchase rings route around background checks. And this is in a case where one of the participants in a sale has a vested interest in making sure the purchaser is legit. Background check for private sale will fail because of this.

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