New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg is at it again, this time he’s committing Federal felonies in Arizona to prove the “need” for a national gun registration database. The media is happily parroting Bloomberg’s press releases, confirming that a felony was committed at an Arizona gun show. The problem is, the illegal acts were done by Bloomberg and his “investigators”.
Bloomberg paid people to go to a gun show and buy handguns for him. Something the Mayor wouldn’t legally be able to do, as he is not a resident of Arizona. This is a straightforward Straw Purchase, defined as the illegal purchase of a firearm by one person for another. A felony committed by Bloomberg’s people, punishable by a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison.
These transactions occurred between Bloomberg’s private investigators, Kroll, Inc and private individuals (not gun dealers). Kroll doesn’t list any locations in Arizona, so I’d love to know how the straw purchasers came up with the Arizona driver’s licenses presented to the gun seller during the transactions. I hope Bloomberg’s people didn’t violate Arizona’s Criminal Impersonation (ARS 13-2006) and Forgery (ARS 13-2002) laws.
From the ABC News article, Bloomberg and his anti-gun group Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) want to require a background check and permanent record of every firearm sale that, “would be archived in the background check database”. They want a national gun registration database and they’re willing to do anything to get it.
Will ATF’s Project Gunrunner go after Bloomberg? Will the Attorney General of Arizona pursue these alleged crimes? Or will the so-called “good” intentions of a rich man in NYC trump the rule of law?
UPDATE: No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money has a similar take from a different angle.
UPDATE II: The Tribune of San Luis Obispo reports that the Bloomberg’s office claims that “the investigators were Arizona residents and broke no laws”. If no laws were broken, will anyone call Bloomberg out on his deception and false proclamations of illegal sales?
