New York City Sting in Arizona?!?

[SMS]

Undercover NYC cops buy guns in Arizona...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/us/31guns.html?_r=2&ref=us

Douchbag sellers aside, how the heck is this not a crime on the investigator's end? A NY state resident buying guns in Arizona with a fake Arizona ID?

Is a municipal officer from one state allowed to run such an operation without the cooperation of the governing state?

 

[SMS]

Of course they could be PIs with legit Arizona ID but the article refers to 'officers'. Regardless, someone needs to give Bloomberg a civics lesson.

 

[Mos Eisley]

All I can muster is...WTF?!?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/31/us-guns-sting-idUKTRE70U6WI20110131

(Reuters) - An undercover sting at a Phoenix gun show found dealers sold weapons like the one used in the Tucson shooting rampage to questionable buyers without conducting background checks, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday.

Investigators working for New York City, prompted by the Tucson shooting that killed six people and injured 13, bought 9mm handguns at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Phoenix and secretly videotaped the transactions, Bloomberg said.

The mayor showed videotapes to the media of the January 23 sales at a news conference.

"You can still walk into a gun show and buy a 9mm in the same time it would take to buy a hamburger and fries at McDonalds," Bloomberg said.

Private gun show dealers are exempt from federal law requiring background checks of customers, Bloomberg said.

In one video, an undercover investigator is seen buying a gun in a legal transaction without a background check.

But in the other two videos, the sales were illegal because the investigators told the vendors they probably would be unable to pass a background check. Under federal law, the vendors should have stopped the sales and did not, he said.

Instead, the dealers on the videos replied that background checks would not be necessary to buy the guns.

The Crossroads of the West Gun Show issued a statement calling the mayor's investigation "entrapment."

"Mayor Bloomberg and his 'task force' have no legal authority in the state of Arizona or in any other place in America except New York City," the statement said. "These forays into America's heartland committing blatant acts to entrap otherwise innocent gun owners is an unlawful scheme that is created by Bloomberg's task force."

Bloomberg said the findings were particularly disturbing in the wake of the January 8 shooting in Tucson, where U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords was severely injured.

"You would hope with the memory of the Tucson shootings still so painfully fresh, especially in the state of Arizona, people would think twice about selling a firearm to anyone who even hinted at not wanting to conduct a background check," said Bloomberg, who serves as co-chairman of the national coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Bloomberg said he would like to see a federal requirement for a background check of criminal records, drug use and psychological problems for any purchase of a firearm.

The exemption is based on a theory that gun show dealers are "a few friends selling the occasional gun out of their collection," the mayor said. However, some gun show dealers sell hundreds of guns, he said.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly called the gun-show exemption "a loophole you can drive a truck through."

Kelly estimated roughly 90 percent of the illegal guns New York police confiscate come from other states, and that many come from gun shows.

The U.S. has some of the most permissive gun laws in the developed world and Arizona has among the most permissive laws of U.S. states.

Are there not laws about states conducting themselves in other states?

.

 

[Old Fart]

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg knows no boundries when trying to save us from ourselves.

 

[dmac1647]

My favorite reader comment: "Please report NYC mayor Bloomberg for federal straw purchase violations. Send your complaint to ATFTips @atf.gov"

 

[Mos Eisley]

I'm sure 90% of illegal immigrants are coming to New York City from other states too. Will that be his next sting operation in Arizona? I'll be holding my breath in anticipation.

Oh, and what I find funny is there is a Google ad at the bottom that says: A 9mm is False Protection, Discover what Survivalist Masters & The Army don't want you to know, www.CloseCombatTraining.com

 

[Glocktogo]

I thought BATFE told Bloomie to knock this crap off? We need a federal prosecutor with some brass balls to walk into Bloomie's office with a couple of U.S. Marshall's and arrest his sorry ass for RICO act violations. Then fly his righteous butt to Arizona and arraign him on charges in that jurisdiction!

Seriously? How many other people in this country can flagrantly and deliberately violate federal law, then brag about it to the whole world while showing evidence of thier criminal conspiracy? This has become utterly ridiculous.

If I were up on federal straw purchase charges, I'd pursue jury nullification of the law based on the incredibly transparent double standard that the U.S. has regarding that law. I mean how many times has he done this? And yet he's never even so much as been investigated, despite willfully admitting he did it?

Absolutely unbelievable!!!

 

[Street Rat]

Since when does what happens in Arizona affect NYC? Why does this idiot care? Why is he spending NYC's money that they DO NOT have just to try to prove a point?

 

[dutchwrangler]

Since when does what happens in Arizona affect NYC? Why does this idiot care? Why is he spending NYC's money that they DO NOT have just to try to prove a point?

Because Bloomberg is a ********* like most politicians...

 

[Profreedomokie]

Bloomberg pulled this crap a few years ago in Va. and NC. They screwed up an FBI investigation and almost got busted themselves. It's ok if you got your nose up George Soros's butt and you're a billionaire. The laws are only for the peasants.