Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Yo, BATFU, You May Have Missed One...

A gun buyback program in the city spearheaded by an Albany pastor has already maxed out with 10 guns taken in, the pastor said Tuesday...

Muller said he plans to turn over the guns to city police this week.
What?

Police weren't there overseeing and taking immediate possession?

Is Muller licensed like you or I would need to be?

Can this article be correct? Because as written, I see a whole bunch of federal and state felonies. Possibly loading up the Daily Gazette's comments form asking about this will prompt the reporter to clarify, and maybe even result in further action---not that they ever seem to take it against those doing their bidding...

UPDATE: I emailed the reporter and got this back:
Thanks for the note. I may not have gotten details on the exact workings, but the program is being run with the full knowledge of the police department. The public safety commissioner and police chief, along with the district attorney were there at the announcement last week with pastor Muller. I may address this more fully when we touch on this again.
Here's my reply:
I don't believe "knowledge" is enough--they need to have someone in authority there. Unless the pastor is an FFL...

He may very well have local and state waiver sanction, although I really don't see how they're empowered to ignore NY firearms transfer laws, but the other thing that strikes me is the federal laws that appear to have been broken--again, just based on what I'm reading in your account, as I have no idea what actually transpired.

If there are not additional details that somehow weren't offered to you, you may have a bigger story. It would be interesting to get a quote from ATF on this, don't you think? Nail down exactly what the authority is to conduct such private buybacks...?

CUM ULLA SELLA IN PUGNO TABERNA

8 comments:

GunRights4US said...

Awwww but they MEANT well! It's all about intentions isn't it?

If just ONE life is saved...

Blah Blah Blah

Anonymous said...

"A gun buyback program in the city spearheaded by an Albany pastor..."

Gasp! What about ... spearheads?! Darned dangerous things. I have several in my collection. I could cut myself any day. Where, oh where can I surrender these expensive inanimate pieces of private property for the betterment of my city?

Anonymous said...

Cut some slack Codrea, after all it's just an 'authorized journalist's' take.

Non carborundum illegitimi

Anonymous said...

anon,
Looks like you missed the whole point of the post.

We know that many, if not most, gun "buybacks" are done in a manner that they break laws. We also know that LEOs tend to look the other way. David is trying to get the AJs to actually look at what is going on and to fulfill their self-chosen role of "watchdogs of teh Republic".

jon said...

well, hey, to put a pessimistic viewpoint on it: if they're stupid enough to parrot gun control phraseology and never question it, then they're stupid enough to be a barstool in this fight.

i'm absolutely getting some chuckles out of this one.

Tam said...

Whoa up.

What Federal firearms law is he breaking? As a private citizen who is legal to purchase, he may buy as many handguns in face-to-face transfers as he likes, just like he could at a gun show.

Now, he may be breaking New York State firearms laws left and right, but unless I'm missing missing something, there aren't any Sec.922 violations.

Anonymous said...

tam pretty much covered what my concerns were on this: at least in light of federal laws, what is the difference between "gun buy backs" and plain 'ol intra-state private sales?

Like it or not, the misnamed "gun show loophole", private sales of property, is a good thing, even if evil people also participate.

Now, as for the state and local laws, go get 'em, or quit trying to maintain the facade of equal "protection" under the law.

David Codrea said...

Tam may be right--the fedlaw part of what I raised may not be valid. I'm not sure how I got turned around on that--I think I was thinking that he's not buying them for himself but to transfer to a 3rd party, albeit the police, and he intends to do it on a regular basis, not as an occasional collector, so that in effect puts him in the "business" of dealing guns. But perhaps I screwed up here. Not the first time, won't be the last.