Remember, guns begin their lives in the legal market and get diverted into the illegal market.

How? According to ATF, 1.2% of Federally licensed gun dealers account for almost 60% of crime guns in America.

Another example from AP today:

A Freeport gun dealer will be arraigned this week on charges of illegally selling handguns to a convicted felon.

Prosecutors say 36-year-old Wade Collett sold 11 handguns to customers he knew were not the real buyers, who then turned the weapons over to 22-year-old Durrell Williams of New York City.

Collett runs Red Wheel Enterprises gun shop, located in the same building as Red Wheel Antiques. Williams was prohibited from buying the guns because of a previous drug conviction.

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From Capital News 9 (Albany):

Governor Paterson says that legislators have reached ground breaking legislation that will improve background checks while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

Paterson joined state legislators to announce an agreement on legislation that will allow more comprehensive background checks on persons who are purchasing firearms. The legislation implements a new federal requirement was put in place in response to last year’s Virginia Tech shootings. The new law will significantly improve the State’s ability to submit mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by amending the state law that mandated those records remain confidential.

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Another example of Brady background checks at work, this time in Pennsylvania.

Per the AP:

NORRISTOWN, Pa. - Authorities say former NBA player Aaron McKie tried to buy two guns despite being under a protection-from-abuse order.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman says McKie failed to disclose the protection order when he applied to buy the guns in April.

She says McKie never got the guns because of the order. It was filed in Delaware County last year and is in effect until September.

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In Pennsylvania, per the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader:

BUTLER TWP. – Township police arrested a 45-year-old McAdoo man while he was attempting to purchase a firearm on Saturday, according to a police news release.

Christopher Fabiani, of South Kennedy Drive, was at a Drums firearms dealer trying to purchase a gun, township police said. During the purchase, police said Fabiani was checked through a state computer system to determine if he was eligible to buy the gun.

The computer check found that Fabiani was wanted, and township police were notified, police said. Officers responded to the scene and apprehended Fabiani leaving the gun dealer.

Fabiani was wanted by Schuylkill Haven police for resisting arrest, police said.

Township police are continuing the investigation to determine if Fabiani lied while preparing the paperwork to purchase the firearm.

An example of the 1.5 million felons, fugitives, dangerously mentally ill, domestic abusers and others rejected at the point of sale by Brady criminal background checks since 1994.

This also helps illustrate the recent finding from the Medical College of Wisconsin that state and local-level background checks are “more effective in reducing firearm homicide and suicide rates than states that rely only on a federal-level background check.”  (Pennsylvania is a Point of Contact state.)

Utah’s “system” of doling out concealed carry permits to out-of-state residents is continuing to invite scrutiny.

In today’s Salt Lake Tribune:

About 650 people living outside Utah are licensed to teach classes to qualify other out-of-staters for the state’s concealed-weapon permit.

Administrating them, however, is becoming increasingly difficult. The state works on a “tattle-tale” system to ensure instructors are doing their jobs properly, Lt. Douglas Anderson, manager of the Bureau of Criminal Identification, told the Legislature’s Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice interim committee Wednesday.

Trouble is, Anderson has just three firearms investigators, which makes it difficult to determine what’s being taught outside Utah, he said.

Besides those concerns, Rep. David Litvack and Sen. Scott McCoy, both Salt Lake City Democrats, said they wonder if Utah could be held liable if an out-of-stater who holds a Utah permit commits a crime. McCoy pointed out that while in-state technology allows the state to run daily criminal checks on Utah permit holders, out-of-staters are only checked when they apply for a permit every five years.

“We’re sending out that privilege across the country without any kind of ability to apply the same check that we apply to our fellow Utah citizens,” McCoy said.

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