Richard Feldman and Jim Zumbo should start a club.

They could call it, “Gun Owners Who Annoy The NRA.�

If you haven’t heard yet, Mr. Feldman has written what appears to be a pretty explosive book about his experience lobbying for the National Rifle Association. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but this quote from the flyleaf caught my attention:

…Richard Feldman, former NRA regional political director and lobbyist for the firearm industry, exposes the NRA as a cynical, mercenary political cult obsessed with wielding power while exploiting [NRA] members’ fear in order to maximize contributions.

To gun owners he says:

…[T]he NRA has betrayed your trust, misused your hard-earned donations….

Don’t hold back, Mr. Feldman. Tell us what you really think.

To be sure, he makes a point of saying that his book isn’t meant for gun control advocates and that the NRA has “strengthened the hand of those who want to take your guns away.� I don’t consider the Brady Campaign to be one of the groups described in that last comment, but I would like to find common ground with the NRA on ways to make our communities safer. I’m not sure they’re interested in such an approach, however.

At any rate, I hope to read the book soon, and thought some of you would want to know about it.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

That was the headline, two days before Halloween, when the Washington Post turned over an ugly rock too long ignored by our elected officials.

Now, a whole host of terrifying facts about gun shows in America have crawled out. In a nutshell, this report says that Mexican gangsters are at war, and they’re shooting each other with guns bought in unregulated sales at American gun shows. To do it, the gangsters exploit what is known as the gun show loophole. They find so-called “private sellers� at gun shows, who can sell whole arsenals of weapons without ever running a background check.

Here are a few of the most powerful quotes from the article:

• “…unlicensed sellers can sell ‘personal collections’ at weekend gun shows without background checks.â€�

• “…unscrupulous sellers and buyers have taken advantage of the system … setting up phony personal collections booths and making quick sales that are difficult to trace.â€�

• “Arizona and Texas have become a ‘gunrunner’s paradise’….â€�

• “…arms traffickers have left Mexico awash in AK-47s, pistols, telescope sighting devices, grenades, grenade launchers and high-powered ammunition, such as the so-called cop-killer bullets believed to be able to penetrate bulletproof vests.â€�

• “Among the new weapons of choice for Mexican drug dealers are so-called variants of AK-47s and AR-15 assault rifles….â€�

• “An AK-47 that sells for $200 to $800 at an Arizona gun show can be sold for four times that much in Mexico….â€�

• “‘You’re looking at the same firepower here on the border that our soldiers are facing in Iraq and Afghanistan’….â€�

• “…law enforcement officers on both sides of the border have never seen anything like the flood of guns now surging into Mexico.â€�

Drugs from Mexico come in, and American guns go out.

What’s Washington’s answer? The report says that President Bush has “proposed [a] $500 million U.S. aid package to help Mexico battle [drug] cartels.� That’s right: according to the article, we could be sending the Mexican government half a billion dollars to fight Mexican drug gangs armed with guns bought right here in America. But that’s plainly slamming the door shut after the horse has left the barn.

Remember: unregulated gun show sales are how Eric Harris and Dylan Kleybold got their guns before they murdered 12 and wounded 22 others at Columbine High School. It’s how Michael Fortier – an accomplice of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh – sold many of the guns they stole from an Arkansas gun collector. It’s how Ali Boumelhem – a member of the terrorist group Hezbollah – bought an arsenal of shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, flash suppressors and assault weapons parts for export to Lebanon. And it’s how Muhammad Navid Asrar – who may also have had a link to al-Qaeda – bought an arsenal of his own, “including a Sten submachine gun, a Ruger Mini-14 rifle, two pistols and a hunting rifle.�

These are just some of the highest-profile examples, but it doesn’t have to be this way. We should never have to read about another school shooting fueled by an unregulated gun show sale. We should never have to read about another accused terrorist arming himself at a gun show. We should never have to read about how gun shows in America arm the drug gangs in Mexico.

Enough already.

The Washington Post article should spur our elected officials to answer a few basic questions:

• Why do the President and Congress permit gun shows in America to arm Mexican drug gangs?

• How can the gun lobby defend these disgraceful business practices as they continue their efforts to keep the gun show loophole open?

• What will it take for the President and Congress to stare down the gun pushers and close the gun show loophole, once-and-for-all?

Now is the time to act: Require a background check for every single gun sale in America. We make it too easy for dangerous people to get dangerous weapons.

No background check? No sale. NO EXCEPTIONS.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

The Indiana Court of Appeals handed an significant victory to the City of Gary on Monday. In fact, anyone in Indiana who has suffered from the unlawful distribution of guns to criminals and gun traffickers because of the practices of the gun industry has reason to cheer.

In a unanimous 3-0 decision [pdf document], the Indiana Court of Appeals decided that the City of Gary can sue gun manufacturers who allegedly funnel guns into the criminal market for creating a public nuisance under Indiana law. Put simply, when gun industry practices injure the public, it should be held accountable. That’s a common-sense idea, and the Court agreed.

It was a significant blow to the gun lobby, since the Indiana Court found that Gary’s lawsuit falls squarely within an exception to a Federal law called the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act� (PLCAA). The gun manufacturers argued that even bad business practices should be shielded from accountability by the PLCAA.

But because they failed to convince any of the three judges, the people of Gary, Indiana may soon have their day in court.

It is important to remember that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has shown [pdf document, at page 2] that just 1.2 % of licensed gun dealers account for about 57 % of all guns traced to crime. All of the gun dealers being sued [pdf document] in this case fall into that questionable 1.2% [pdf document].

Furthermore, the gun industry should know exactly who these shady dealers are. If they don’t, they only have to ask the ATF. Or, in the Gary case specifically, they could just watch the videotaped stings of gun dealers that were filmed by the City of Gary Police Department.

Once the gun manufacturers separate the corrupt dealers from the honest ones, they should stop retailing through corrupt dealers altogether. Otherwise, manufacturers know that a huge percentage of their products – dangerous weapons – will wind up in illegal hands. And if that happens, they should be held accountable.

Gun manufacturers shouldn’t wait to be sued to do the right thing. We should all challenge the industry to review its practices to help prevent dangerous people from getting dangerous weapons.

That will make things safer for all of us. And it’s just good business.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)