Safe haven for criminal activity, Gun Shows [View All]

The ATF reports that 25 to 50% of gun dealers at gun shows are unlicensed.(Michael Bouchard, Asst Director BATF;Hearings before the House Subcommitee on Crime and Terrorism, 109th Congress)

A study by Dr. Wintemute from the University of California-Davis found the "25 to 50%" quoted above may be even higher, closer to 70%.(Injury Prevention. 2007 p.150)

In 2005 undercover ATF officers learned that an unlicensed dealer, Ghassan Haddad was supplying neo-Nazis with machine guns at Seattle area gun shows.(Seattle Post Intelligencer, Oct. 19th 2005)

In New Orleans ATF agents identified the source for guns that gangs use came from gun shows.(BATF, Investigating Gun Shows, p. 29)

From 1996 to 1998 approximately 26,000 illegal firearms were traded at gun shows. At just 195 gun shows between 2005 and 2006 121 arrests were made and 5,345 guns were seized.(www.atf.gov/pub/fire-explo_pub/pdf/followthegun_internet.pdf) (www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e0707/final.pdf)

http://www.csgv.org/atf/cf/%7B79FD0842-518D-42AC-8228-AE59B7990689%7D/Gun%20Show%20Loophole%20Memo.pdf

http://www.csgv.org/atf/cf/%7B23E96A35-4C75-41EE-BDDD-4BD3A3B59010%7D/CSGV%202007%20Gun%20Show%201%20Percent%20Memo.pdf

http://www.csgv.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=pmL5JnO7KzE&b=3509271&ct=4538221

On April 20, 1999, in the deadliest high school shooting in US history, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold procured two shotguns, an assault rifle, and a TEC-9 assault pistol and shot 26 students in Littleton, Colo., killing 13 before killing themselves. An ATF investigation found that all four weapons had been purchased from private sellers at gun shows.

On Sept. 10, 2001, just one day before the devastating attacks against the United States, Ali Boumelhem was convicted in Michigan on a variety of weapons violations plus conspiracy to ship weapons to the terrorist organization Hezbollah. He and his brother Mohamed had purchased an arsenal weapons from Michigan gun shows without undergoing background checks.

In Texas, Muhammad Asrar was arrested in an investigation of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He pleaded guilty to immigration violations and illegal possession of ammunition. The Pakistani store owner said he had bought handguns, rifles, and a submachine gun at gun shows since 1994.

Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh used Texas gun shows to make large gun purchases. According to an ATF arrest warrant, Koresh and his cult made "regular purchases of weapons and ammunition flea markets and gun shows." Authorities estimated that Koresh had at least 200 automatic and semi-automatic assault rifles stockpiled, plus thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 was a "private seller" at gun shows. He along with accomplice Michael Fortier, admitted to stealing $60,000 worth of shotguns, rifles, and handguns from an Arkansas gun collector's ranch and then reselling the stolen weapons at gun shows.


There's your stats, you asked for them, now deal with them.