Constitutional Law

Newspaper supports reporting requirement for stolen guns

Article here. The claim is that it would prevent straw men and illicit gun suppliers from claiming a gun had been stolen from them, after it turns up in crime. To my mind:

1) It's interesting that none of the calls along these lines ever come up with numbers, or even a single anecdote. How often, if at all, is a gun traced to an illegal supplier who claims it was stolen? If a supplier is making a living at it, you'd expect multiple crime guns to be traced to him, which would make repeat claims of theft rather suspicious. I haven't heard of a single case where this sort of thing happened, and the proponents of these bills seem unable to come up with one, either.

2) If they want to get the supplier, there is a simple way. Give the criminal user use immunity -- nothing he reveals can be used against him, hence no self-incrimination, but it can be used against someone else. Put him in front of the grand jury and ask where the gun came from. Then prosecute the supplier using his testimony. Then you have the supplier on something serious (under federal law, as I recall, supplying a gun with knowledge it would be used in crime carries a 10 year sentence), rather than misdemeanor failure to report, which would probably result in a modest fine.

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on March 23, 2008 (boomark / email).