No jail for gun dealer

[Ret10Echo]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/loc...,1751085.story

baltimoresun.com
No jail for gun dealer
Man gets probation for selling a felon an assault rifle
By Matthew Dolan

Sun reporter

January 15, 2008
A Baltimore County judge handed down a sentence without jail time yesterday for a former gun dealer charged with illegally providing a weapon to a man who died in a firefight with police last year.

Sanford M. Abrams, an outspoken firearms advocate in Maryland who once served on the board of the National Rifle Association, entered an Alford plea to a single charge of illegally selling a restricted weapon. The plea approved by Circuit Judge John Grason Turnbull II allowed Abrams to maintain his innocence but forced him to concede that the state had enough evidence to convict him.

In turn, Abrams, 58, of Owings Mills, received a five-year suspended prison sentence and one year of probation. As part of his plea agreement, he will divest himself of his weapons inventory, and will be prohibited from owning or selling regulated firearms, including handguns, according to prosecutors.

After the brief hearing yesterday morning in Towson, Abrams and his attorney both declined to comment.

Baltimore County police charged Abrams in May of last year, saying that the sale was illegal because his customer, Keith J. Showalter, had a criminal record that prevented him from owning a gun legally and because such gun sales are supposed to be reported to the Maryland State Police.

On Feb. 18, 2007, police responding to a call from Showalter's estranged girlfriend fatally shot him after he refused to surrender and fired seven rounds from a military-style rifle at the officers, according to authorities.

The charge Abrams pleaded to yesterday did not involve the weapon Showalter fired at police. At issue was a Bushmaster assault rifle, which was sold by Abrams and found inside the home after Showalter's death, lawyers in the case said.

Abrams' attorney Norman B. King said his client had been confused during the sale. He mistakenly thought the model type of Bushmaster rifle he sold did not have to be cleared through state police, King said. Authorities questioned that account because of Abrams' expertise in firearms.

After the sentencing, Showalter's mother complained to Assistant State's Attorney Kristin Blumer about the lack of time behind bars for Abrams. Gun-control advocates who have tracked Abrams for years also questioned whether the punishment fit the crime.

"It is troubling that gun laws are so weak that Abrams could have his license revoked and then sell an assault weapon to a criminal who shot at police and still not receive a day in jail," Daniel R. Vice, senior attorney for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence Legal Action Project wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

Targeted for almost a decade by federal weapons inspectors who repeatedly chided him for poor recordkeeping, Abrams lost his federal license almost two years ago for failing to keep track of hundreds of weapons in his shop's inventory.

His Parkville store, Valley Gun, was one of 41 licensed firearm dealers - out of 80,000 nationwide - ordered by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to provide detailed reports on all gun purchases and sales for the previous three years, and to continue providing such reports monthly. Abrams saw it as an improper power play and sued the bureau.

Federal firearms agents found problems in Abrams' bookkeeping almost immediately. After multiple inspections, authorities compared the number of firearms listed in the store's books with the number of firearms on the premises.

The numbers didn't match.

Abrams lost his license after the federal courts determined he had more than 900 violations of recordkeeping regulations.

The criminal case against Abrams started more recently. Federal agents asked county police for help in seizing the firearms at Abrams' store on Harford Road after his federal and state firearms licenses had been revoked.

About that same time, county police received several tips that Abrams was still selling weapons. Paperwork later showed he sold weapons to Showalter, according to prosecutors.

[Pete]

Targeted for almost a decade, cited for poor records, the anti-gunners spying on him, and he claimed he didn't know he couldn't sell the guy a Bushmaster?

He got off real lucky.

With the anti's looking to drive everybody with a license out of business you know the laws and keep your paperwork straight. Just ask Jim's Pawn Shop, they might have to have a Fire Sale here shortly.

[82ndtrooper]

I'm no legal eagle nor a licensed firearms dealer but how long are records of purchases supposed to kept ??

I've alway's been under the impression that 4473's are only legally bound to be kept for 90's after the transfer of the firearm to the buyer. I understand that every firearm recieved is put into a ledger and then taken out of the ledger as it is sold.

Maybe I'm outta touch here, but his records didn't match what ?? The number of firearms recieved and transferred? Or, the make, model, and serial number and the individual to which they they where transferred ??

I'm not defending his actions if he sold an AR15 Bushmaster to an individual that came up "Do not proceed" upon the 4473 call. Rather just curious as to which records are to be kept and if their is a violation of civil rights under current laws if the records are supposedly demanded by the BATFE.

[The Reaper]

BATF compliance inspections started getting really nasty during the Klinton regime.

Three of the five gun stores I used to shop at were put out of business by the BATF.

Both of the remaining two were inspected for "failure to cooperate" with traces, though they had documentation to prove that they had provided the requested info ASAP.

The records search went back several years, and they were citied for such egregious errors on the 4473s as abbreviating the state name, middle initial used instead of middle name, etc.

With a total volume that exceeded 10,000 guns, each store had less than 50 guns that were not properly accounted for.

Most of the "missing guns" were trade-ins of used guns that were sold on 4473s without being properly logged into the bound book. I suspect that most of those were employees buying "good deal" guns as soon as they were traded in and not taking the time to log them in.

I would challenge anyone here to open a firearms business, make enough money to keep it open, hire a number of new employees every year, buy thousands of new and used guns every year from innumerable sources, try to comply with the bureaucracy, and see if your records are perfect after a few years.

The whole point of the drill is to put as many gun dealers as possible out of business.

IMHO, the current administration did not really change the Klinton BATF policies all that much.

It would appear that the dealer in question violated some Maryland state law regarding "assault weapons" sales.

Just my .02, YMMV.

TR

[Pete]

But that is the way the BATF is going to play it.

They have passed enough laws that anybody can be in violation some where.

They are going after the people who try their best to follow the law, not those who are outright breaking the law.

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by Pete

But that is the way the BATF is going to play it.

They have passed enough laws that anybody can be in violation some where.

They are going after the people who try their best to follow the law, not those who are outright breaking the law.

Fewer man-hours, more press.... Easier to walk into an established place of business and bully the owner than it is to find the guy selling it out of his jacket pocket in a back alley.

If there was ever a federal law-enforcement agency that needed to go away, it's the BATF.

[Ret10Echo]

http://essentials.baltimoresun.com/m...s=Show+Results

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

http://essentials.baltimoresun.com/m...s=Show+Results

It could be worse you could live in Phoenix!

Hell here in phoenix we don't even report all the murders. My guess is that illegals killing each other does not go into the crime reports. How do I know, four illegals go to hospital at the same time from the same gunfight, one is DOA, one is taken to the operating room and survives and the two others are flesh wounds. Not one mention of this incident appears in the local news, not one. (I personally know the surgeon that saw them.......)

The phoenix Mayor even has a "Make phoenix seem crime free" campaign going within the phoenix police department. Why, because a lot of the crime is illegals praying on snowbirds and visitors.

Into the ashes
Jul 26th 2007 | PHOENIX
From The Economist print edition

A city that once won prizes is now a crime-ridden mess


MICHAEL ZISTATSIS, a restaurateur in downtown Phoenix, used to be excited by the prospects that only a gentrifying city, more foot traffic and wealthy new locals can bring. His business had been growing steadily for years. But now things have changed. City planners decreed that there should be a light railway linking Phoenix to neighbouring cities such as Scottsdale. The construction work, which is currently ripping up miles of downtown Phoenix, makes walking and parking almost impossible; so few feel motivated to shop or dine there. Proprietors like Mr Zistatsis, whose clientele has dropped by 30% since 2005, feel distinctly miffed. And they are not the only ones losing faith in Phoenix, a victim of ill-managed city planning.

Phoenix was once hailed as a model city. It grew fast. Its streets were new and shiny, and housing was cheap. Beginning in 1950, the National Civic League voted Phoenix an “All-American City” four times. In 1993 an international competition rated Phoenix, along with Christchurch, New Zealand, the world's best-governed city. Forbes recently ranked it as America's second-best job market, thanks to its buoyant property market and rapid urban growth. In the past five years metropolitan Phoenix's population has grown by almost a fifth, to over 4m.

But in the past few years the awards have mostly dried up and things have started to go wrong. Burglary, theft and car crime are among the highest in the country. Newcomers who left Los Angeles to avoid smog and commuter traffic find that both are little better in Phoenix, and the area scores embarrassingly low in national education ratings. In October the Morgan Quitno Press, a research group, credited Arizona with the worst public education in the country, thanks to overcrowded classrooms, poor test scores and low salaries for teachers. Why the decline?

Kristin Koptiuch, an associate professor of anthropology at Arizona State University (ASU), thinks one problem is that minorities are being locked out of government and city planning, which then saps the area of the ethnic neighbourhoods that give structure to Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Phoenix's Native-American art shops and taco restaurants offer pockets of variety, but generic food chains such as International House of Pancakes and Pizza Hut still dominate. The property market is white-dominated too, Ms Koptiuch says, with its suburbs policed by homeowners' associations which insist on a certain uniformity of style. Latinos make up one-third of Phoenix's population, but from the outside appearance of the place you wouldn't know it.

Scott Decker, director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at ASU, cites methamphetamines smuggled in from Mexico as a prime cause of rising crime. But the larger problem is that rapid urban growth has overwhelmed existing prisons, courts, defence lawyers and police. Phoenix's newcomers are largely “snowbirds” (people avoiding the cold weather up north), sports fans and Californians; their frequent absences and lack of knowledge of their own area make their properties easy prey. “Policing Phoenix has become very hard,” Mr Decker notes.
Locals also moan that Phoenicians are becoming more antisocial. Patricia Gober, the author of a book called “Metropolitan Phoenix: Place Making and Community Building in the Desert”, says this is because everyone has come from somewhere else. Without a shared history, she says, people feel no sense of place. Throw in scorching summers and a lack of public spaces, and the environment becomes antagonistic.



http://www.economist.com/world/na/di...ory_id=9546749

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

It could be worse you could live in Phoenix!

We received Phoenix news stations when I was in Yuma...you're right, in fact my wife and I thought the news out of Phoenix was worse than what we got each night from the Boston stations.

They must be doing well burying the statistics in all the cities and towns that make up the Phoenix metro..

Illegals killing Illegals....If a tree falls in the forest?