From pocket-size assault weapons and sniper rifles that can kill a man a mile-and-a-half away to incendiary armor-piercing bullets, you can find what you’re looking for at gun shows across the United States.
You know the article is going to be a doozy when it starts out like this.  Pocket-size assault weapons?  I’ve never seen one of those, personally, but I suspect they are talking about the Magpul FMG 9, which appeared at SHOT.  Aside from being a submachine gun rather than an assault weapon, it’s not legal to sell to civilians. But why let facts get in the way?
In hidden-camera photos and videos captured by researchers at the University of California, Davis, men roamed gun shows with assault rifles slung over their shoulders and pistols tucked in their belts, available for sale with no waiting period, background check or paper trail.
Yes, because outside of California, where Wintenmute does his “research”, it’s legal to sell a firearms in a private sale if you’re not “engaged in the business” of selling them. Â If you’re selling firearms at a gun show as a gun dealer, you need a federal license, and the background checks for transfers. Â Conveniently left out is the fact that this is the case whether you’re at a guns show or not. Â Just last week I bought an M1903 Springfield from a guy I shoot with under the same “loophole.” Â No gun show involved.
“California is a good example of the fact that you can regulate gun commerce … without putting (gun shows) out of business,” Wintemute said.
He said he almost never saw individual sales or straw buys in California. But large gun shows take place in Reno and Phoenix.
Well, let’s take a look at California, and compare to states that border it, all of which have gun laws that are considerably less strict, and none of which regulate private sales of firearms at gun shows or anywhere else. Â California’s violent crime rate is 523 per 100,000. Â The combined violent crime rates of Arizona, Nevada and Oregon are 468 per 100,000. Â The burden ought to be on those who advocate limiting people’s freedom, to show that their policies will actually make the public safer. Â They’ve never been able to demonstrate that it does.
“The combined violent crime rates of Arizona, Nevada and Oregon are 468 per 100,000.”
Sebastian. Where are you getting the numbers for NV, OR & AZ? Just wondering because the avg. for those 3 combined per the 2007 FBI UCR is 506.96.
Who knows, maybe my math is wrong.
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_05.html
“California is a good example of the fact that you can regulate gun commerce … without putting (gun shows) out of business,â€
He’s also conveniently omitting that while current Californian laws have failed to put gun shows out of business, there’s pending legislation in California that is a first step to doing just that – http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Gun-Show-Ban-at-Cow-Palace-Closer-to-Law.html
Could be a math error on my part. What I did was add up the total number of violent crimes for the three states, divided it by the total population of the three states, and multiplied it by 100,000.
OK, nevermind. MY math was wrong (big surprise there) Either way, with my botched math raising the rate for AZ, OR & NV the state of California still had a higher rate.
The numbers show(as we all know) that the violent crime rate has nothing to do with the availbilty of firearms. The violent crime rate is 750.6 in Nevada which has fairly lax gun laws, but in Arizona with arguably even more lax gun laws the violent crime rate is 482.7. Oregon has the lowest with a violent crime rate of 287.6.
The issue is much more complex than something as simplistic as the availbilty of firearms being the cause of violent crime. Issues like immigration, rapid urbanization(Las Vegas) and other factors all have their role to play.
But these issues are the last thing that political leaders want to address. It might offend some group or block of voters and that is the last thing that they want to do.
So they push gun control and blame it on the evil NRA. That way they can deflect the blame from their own failure to address the real causes of violent crime.
“He said he almost never saw individual sales or straw buys in California.”
Wait a second, wasn’t there an article a while back that said something like 40% of the Mexican crime guns came from California?
You know the article is going to be a doozy when it starts out like this. Pocket-size assault weapons? I’ve never seen one of those, personally, but I suspect they are talking about the Magpul FMG 9, which appeared at SHOT.
Since the article doesn’t specify the weapon, I think that it’s more likely to be a pocket knife.
In the interest of education, just to show everyone how the process works, I think you should transfer your 1903 Springfield to me.
The report, in mutiple pdf format, can be found at http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/vprp/
Another story, by KTXL/FOX 40 News (http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-tv-gunshowsales,0,4377474.story) didn’t entirely follow the script:
[quote]
Another UC Davis researcher who attended the press conference hoping to see scientific data linking gun show sales and crime was disappointed.
“None of that was presented,” said Jesse Bengson.
Instead, he said he saw anecdotal inferences and personal opinion. He said you can’t condemn flea markets for bad things that happen in them and that individuals are responsible for how guns are used.
Wintemute conceded that the data isn’t there.
[/quote]
He said he almost never saw individual sales or straw buys in California.
He must not have been looking too hard.