Mayor Bloomberg Announces Final Settlement in Groundbreaking Litigation

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR-374-08
September 23, 2008

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES FINAL SETTLEMENT IN GROUNDBREAKING
LITIGATION AGAINST GUN DEALERS CAUGHT SELLING IN APPARENT VIOLATION
OF FEDERAL LAW

Final Settlement Mirrors Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership
Developed by Wal-Mart & Mayors Against Illegal Guns

After Two Years, Successful Litigation Concludes with Dealers Agreeing to Reform Sales Practices

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that the last of the 27 dealers sued by New York City in 2006 for public nuisance has agreed to a settlement. The final dealer to settle, Bob Moates Sport Shop, Inc. of Midlothian, Virginia, has entered into an agreement that closely mirrors the terms of the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership, a collaborative project of the coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Wal-Mart. Key features of the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership include videotaping of sales activities; a computerized system to log crime gun traces; and the requirement that for sales flagged by the computerized system, purchasers must fill out a declaration indicating they meet the legal requirement to purchase a firearm. The City's groundbreaking litigation followed an undercover operation targeting dealers whose guns were most frequently recovered at crime scenes in New York City. The operation produced video evidence of dealers selling guns in apparent violation of federal law. Over the course of two years, 21 of the 27 dealers settled with the City, three defaulted and will have settlement terms imposed on them by the court and three were dismissed by agreement.

"We've made New York the safest big city in the nation by pioneering innovative new ways to target criminal activity, and our litigation to stop straw purchases hit the bulls-eye," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Our goal was never to put these dealers out of business; it was to improve compliance with federal laws. And as the data have already begun to show, the strategy has worked. The success of our litigation is particularly gratifying because it was inspired by the tragic murders of six New York City police officers who were gunned down in the line of duty in the span of less than three years. I promised their widows that we would do even more to stop the flow of illegal guns onto our streets, and this litigation, along with the tougher local and state laws we have passed and the national coalition of mayors we have formed, is helping us keep that promise. The litigation, along with the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership that Mayors Against Illegal Guns launched with Wal-Mart in April, is helping transform gun retailing across the country to protect lawful firearms sales, while preventing illegal sales to criminals and improving public safety."

"There is no doubt that practices required by the settlements, like the one announced today, are helping keep New Yorkers and other Americans safer," said John Feinblatt, the Mayor's Criminal Justice Coordinator. "A Johns Hopkins study of seven dealers that settled with the City showed a 75 percent decrease in those dealers' portion of crime guns that ended up in New York City shortly after being sold. On top of that, in 2007, we saw a 16 percent decrease in the number of crime guns coming to the City from the five states where we sued gun dealers."

"We are pleased not only to bring to a close two years of litigation, but to be a part of an agreement that will continue to develop best practices for responsible gun sales," said Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel. "Certainly most gun dealers do not want the guns they sell to be used in crimes, and we hope the practices developed as a result of this lawsuit will be adopted by gun stores nationwide."

"The agreement is important because it forces gun dealers to recognize their responsibilities," said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. "There's a link between their accommodation of straw purchases and gun crime and the risk to police officers responding to it. New York City is made safe by police officers who risk their lives fighting crime. Anything that makes it harder for criminals to get guns helps safeguard the police and the City."

The 10 points of the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership are:

* Videotaping the Point of Sale for All Firearms Transactions. Participating retailers will videotape the point-of-sale of all firearms transactions and maintain videos for 6 months to deter illegal purchases and monitor employees.

* Computerized Crime Gun Trace Log and Alert System. Mayors Against Illegal Guns will develop a computerized system that participating retailers will implement over time to log crime gun traces relating to the retailer. Once the program is in place, if a customer who has a prior trace at that retailer attempts to purchase a firearm, the sale will be electronically flagged. The retailer would have discretion to proceed with the sale or stop the sale.

* Purchaser Declaration. For sales flagged by the trace alert system, participating retailers will ask purchasers to fill out a declaration indicating that they meet the legal requirement to purchase the firearm.

* Deterring Fake IDs. Participating retailers will only accept valid federal- or state-issued picture IDs as primary identification. Retailers will utilize additional ID checking mechanisms.

* Consistent Visible Signage. Participating retailers will post signage created by the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership to alert customers of their legal responsibilities at the point-of-sale.

* Employee Background Checks Employee Background Checks. Participating retailers will conduct criminal background checks for all employees selling or handling firearms.

* Employee Responsibility Training. Participating retailers will participate in an employee responsibility training program focused on deterring illegal purchasers. The Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership will create an online training system based on Wal-Mart's training program.

* Inventory Checking. Participating retailers will conduct daily and quarterly audits. Guidelines will be based on Wal-Mart's existing audit procedures.

* No Sales Without Background Check Results. Participating retailers would prohibit sales based on "default proceeds," which are permitted by law when the background check has not returned a result within 3 days.

* Securing Firearms. Participating retailers will maintain firearms kept in customer accessible areas in locked cases or locked to racks.

The 27 gun dealers that were named in the two lawsuits are located in five states - Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. The gun dealers in the lawsuits sold guns in ways that are directly contrary to industry standards and apparently in violation of federal law. The dealers were targeted because of the large number of New York City crime guns that were traced back to them shortly after sale and the dealers' willingness to sell guns in a simulated "straw purchase" where one person buys a gun for another person who is legally barred from buying guns.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Stu Loeser/Jason Post (212) 788-2958

Kate O'Brien Ahlers (Law)
(212) 788-0400

Paul Browne (Police)
(646) 610-6700

ARTICLE
 
I'm still curious as to how Bloomberg proved they were selling straw guns without sending someone to jail in the process. The straw purchase means that someone bought the gun legally on behalf of someone who could not. So...how the hell did he do this without having someone arrested for every purchase his little secret agents did? How exactly do you even go about to prove that kind of crap to begin with? Unless they said "I'm buying it for a friend", and the dealer wnet through with the purchase, or if they answered no to the first question on the back...
 
If criminals want guns, they're going to get them.

As far as "illegal" guns go, about the only way to prevent those would be to prevent all guns, and I don't see that happening.
 
I'm still curious as to how Bloomberg proved they were selling straw guns without sending someone to jail in the process.

It's a civil case; what makes you think they have to prove anything?
 
The 10 points of the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership are:

* Videotaping the Point of Sale for All Firearms Transactions. Participating retailers will videotape the point-of-sale of all firearms transactions and maintain videos for 6 months to deter illegal purchases and monitor employees.

* Computerized Crime Gun Trace Log and Alert System. Mayors Against Illegal Guns will develop a computerized system that participating retailers will implement over time to log crime gun traces relating to the retailer. Once the program is in place, if a customer who has a prior trace at that retailer attempts to purchase a firearm, the sale will be electronically flagged. The retailer would have discretion to proceed with the sale or stop the sale.

* Purchaser Declaration. For sales flagged by the trace alert system, participating retailers will ask purchasers to fill out a declaration indicating that they meet the legal requirement to purchase the firearm.

* Deterring Fake IDs. Participating retailers will only accept valid federal- or state-issued picture IDs as primary identification. Retailers will utilize additional ID checking mechanisms.

* Consistent Visible Signage. Participating retailers will post signage created by the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership to alert customers of their legal responsibilities at the point-of-sale.

* Employee Background Checks Employee Background Checks. Participating retailers will conduct criminal background checks for all employees selling or handling firearms.

* Employee Responsibility Training. Participating retailers will participate in an employee responsibility training program focused on deterring illegal purchasers. The Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership will create an online training system based on Wal-Mart's training program.

* Inventory Checking. Participating retailers will conduct daily and quarterly audits. Guidelines will be based on Wal-Mart's existing audit procedures.

* No Sales Without Background Check Results. Participating retailers would prohibit sales based on "default proceeds," which are permitted by law when the background check has not returned a result within 3 days.

* Securing Firearms. Participating retailers will maintain firearms kept in customer accessible areas in locked cases or locked to racks.

LMAO. Congratulations on achieving total worthlessness. #1 is idiotic, #2 is questionable, #3 is utterly redundant since the 4473 does the exact same damn thing, #4 is sure to reduce the number of dealers who knowingly accept false ID :rolleyes:, #5 is redundant, #6 is basically done everywhere anyways, #7 is toro caca, #8 is standard procedure most everywhere, #9 virtually never happens, and #10 is just plain dumb, because obviously dealers naturally want their inventory to get stolen.
 
Inventory Checking. Participating retailers will conduct daily and quarterly audits. Guidelines will be based on Wal-Mart's existing audit procedures

Lets see...most places conduct a monthly audit, but we'll require either a daily (entirely impractical) or a quarterly (too much room for error over three months).....

You can tell the schmucks coming up with this have never done a gun audit.
 
* Computerized Crime Gun Trace Log and Alert System. Mayors Against Illegal Guns will develop a computerized system that participating retailers will implement over time to log crime gun traces relating to the retailer. Once the program is in place, if a customer who has a prior trace at that retailer attempts to purchase a firearm, the sale will be electronically flagged. The retailer would have discretion to proceed with the sale or stop the sale.

How do they plan on tracing guns that are either not recovered or have had the serial numbers filed off?
 
You can tell the schmucks coming up with this have never done a gun audit.

Out of curiosity is there a methodology to a gun audit that is mandated by the ATF or is it treated like any other kind of inventory audit?
 
How do they plan on tracing guns that are either not recovered or have had the serial numbers filed off?

That's one point, although a filed serial number can sometimes be recovered.

But I'm interested in how they are going to get the trace information from the BATF&E. The only ones that can request a trace are law enforcement agencies. I presume that Boombrains game plan is to get various agencies or city governments to turn this information over to him, which I don't think is legal.

Also the BATF&E recently revealed that there is something like an 8-year lag between when a guns were originally sold, and when a trace was requested and made, in a high percentage of instances. During that time a gun might have gone through a number of both legal and illegal owners. Thus the original owner might find themselves in Bloomburg's private database even though any criminal use of the gun wasn't associated with them.

As for myself, I don't have a problem. Under no circumstances will I buy a gun from any retailer that's associated in any way or form with Bloomburg's outfit. That includes Wal-Mart in particular.
 
I'm still curious as to how Bloomberg proved they were selling straw guns without sending someone to jail in the process.

It's a civil case; what makes you think they have to prove anything?
It is a civil case, so they didn't have to prove a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt (high standard). But the reason they didn't have to prove anything is because it was a settlement.
 
Should enable some amusing litigation in Florida. Here it's illegal for retailers to retain records of firearms sales like this, since it creates a de facto registry. See FS 790.335, which says in part:

"No ... person, public or private, shall knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or any list, record, or registry of the owners of those firearms."
 
So whatever happened with Adventure Outdoors and the counter-suit to Bloomberg that was going on? Was it dropped or something?
 
I didn't know that Wally-World sold handguns, or are the "perps" in NYC doing shoot-outs and drive-bys with Moisin-Nagants?:rolleyes:

Oops! I was thinking Big 5 with the M-N comment.....(They don't sell handguns either)
 
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Ed N., I would think that if the list is kept at HQ in Ark., then they are not afoul of the Fla law.
If the list is local, then they are.
IANAL

lawson4
 
lawson4 - You might be right, but I doubt it, and the state atty I spoke to also seemed to think they'd be in violation.

Furthermore, when I called Walmart's corporate hq about it, they told me this was a question for their local managers. That would imply it isn't being handled outside of Florida.

If you'd like to call WallyWorld, the corporate HQ is 479-273-4000. I spoke with Tammy.
 
From what I've read, he only agreed to two major items: "videotaping of sales activities; a computerized system to log crime gun traces;"

Of course, ol' Bob got 'em to agree to pay for both systems. Really. I read it in the morning paper.

I like the way they list a whole bunch of stuff and ol' Bob only agreed to "an agreement that closely mirrors"

And he doesn't fall under the control of the Mayor B's hired hand, either.

John
 
Bloomberg will now be able to say he 'has made real breakthroughs' against crime. As others have stated - total BS.
 
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