The following article was published on the front page of the June 3, 2000 issue of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (and the best part is I used to work with the guy):
Site on Internet sticks to its guns
Buckhead creator denies online auctions constitute a legal loophole.
Brad Schrade - Staff
Saturday, June 3, 2000
Sitting in linen shorts in his meticulously kept Buckhead home, Steve Urvan runs a Web site that helps gun enthusiasts find that perfect .44-caliber Magnum at the right price.
GunBroker.com is the 34-year-old Georgia Tech dropout's effort to grab a nugget of the e-business gold rush. It's an online auction house that brings wired gun buyers and sellers together. Industry observers say the year-old site is among the leading gun auction sites.
Urvan, who favors golf as a sport and had never fired a gun until moving to Georgia from Ohio, sees nothing wrong with people selling guns on the Internet as long as federal and local laws are followed. Urvan maintains the site and doesn't sell guns himself, but instead creates a safe, user-friendly marketplace, he says. He makes his money from the site through advertising
"There's this idea that children can log onto the Internet and buy guns as easily as you could log on and buy a book or a CD," said Urvan. "That's just not the case. You can't order a gun and have it show up on your doorstep."
Anti-gun forces have targeted the Internet as part of their effort to slow gun sales in America. And an incident last month focused national attention on the company Urvan and his girlfriend run out of his home on a quiet, tree-lined street. Police say two New Jersey high school students posing as a gun dealer illegally purchased semiautomatic handguns through GunBroker.com.
The New Jersey case illustrates how easily guns can slip into the wrong hands through e-commerce, in transactions often conducted over hundreds of miles without face-to-face contact, said David Bernstein, spokesman for Handgun Control, a Washington-based lobby group.
"The Internet opens up another loophole in our gun laws that needs to be closed," Bernstein said. "Internet gun sales is a virtual gun show where buyers, criminals and minors can buy guns without having to complete background checks."
Urvan counters that GunBroker.com requires that any firearm transaction take place through a dealer with a federal firearms license, which requires a background check. A seller must ship the gun to a licensed dealer, who charges a small fee to the buyer.
The 17-year-olds in New Jersey persuaded a Florida gun dealer to give them his license number and they forged a license, police said. They used the license to purchase guns from dealers who had posted on Urvan's site, police said.
The anti-gun political climate is what gave Urvan his start. EBay, a leading auction house for anything from Beanie Babies to old Playboy magazines, discontinued gun auctions in 1999, saying the Internet wasn't appropriate for dealing guns. Other sites followed, leaving online gun traders few places to turn.
Urvan, a computer consultant who had been toying with various Internet business plans, seized the opportunity. He and friends pooled several thousand dollars and had a site up within a month. Urvan projects year-end sales reaching more than $12 million.
"This was a slam-dunk, absolute no-brainer to jump on," said Urvan. "These people were going somewhere."
With an estimated 80 auction sites devoted to firearms and about 4,000 Web sites that have firearm sales, the federal government is paying attention. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is creating a unit to investigate firearms and explosives sales on the Internet, said ATF spokeswoman Tracy Hite.
"To date we have not seen that many cases of (illegal) firearms trafficking on the Internet," Hite said. "However, it is a potential problem that we are working to prepare for."
ON THE WEB:
Internet Gun Trafficking Act of 1999:
http://techlawjournal.com/cong106/guns/Default.htm
CNET.com's eBay gun ban article: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-341264 .html
State-by-state look at gun laws, from CNN: www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/schools/gun.control
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"There's not much comfort in the fact that crime is down 6 percent. So instead of 100 criminals targeting you, now there are only 94. Whoop-dee-doo." -- Paxton Quigley
Site on Internet sticks to its guns
Buckhead creator denies online auctions constitute a legal loophole.
Brad Schrade - Staff
Saturday, June 3, 2000
Sitting in linen shorts in his meticulously kept Buckhead home, Steve Urvan runs a Web site that helps gun enthusiasts find that perfect .44-caliber Magnum at the right price.
GunBroker.com is the 34-year-old Georgia Tech dropout's effort to grab a nugget of the e-business gold rush. It's an online auction house that brings wired gun buyers and sellers together. Industry observers say the year-old site is among the leading gun auction sites.
Urvan, who favors golf as a sport and had never fired a gun until moving to Georgia from Ohio, sees nothing wrong with people selling guns on the Internet as long as federal and local laws are followed. Urvan maintains the site and doesn't sell guns himself, but instead creates a safe, user-friendly marketplace, he says. He makes his money from the site through advertising
"There's this idea that children can log onto the Internet and buy guns as easily as you could log on and buy a book or a CD," said Urvan. "That's just not the case. You can't order a gun and have it show up on your doorstep."
Anti-gun forces have targeted the Internet as part of their effort to slow gun sales in America. And an incident last month focused national attention on the company Urvan and his girlfriend run out of his home on a quiet, tree-lined street. Police say two New Jersey high school students posing as a gun dealer illegally purchased semiautomatic handguns through GunBroker.com.
The New Jersey case illustrates how easily guns can slip into the wrong hands through e-commerce, in transactions often conducted over hundreds of miles without face-to-face contact, said David Bernstein, spokesman for Handgun Control, a Washington-based lobby group.
"The Internet opens up another loophole in our gun laws that needs to be closed," Bernstein said. "Internet gun sales is a virtual gun show where buyers, criminals and minors can buy guns without having to complete background checks."
Urvan counters that GunBroker.com requires that any firearm transaction take place through a dealer with a federal firearms license, which requires a background check. A seller must ship the gun to a licensed dealer, who charges a small fee to the buyer.
The 17-year-olds in New Jersey persuaded a Florida gun dealer to give them his license number and they forged a license, police said. They used the license to purchase guns from dealers who had posted on Urvan's site, police said.
The anti-gun political climate is what gave Urvan his start. EBay, a leading auction house for anything from Beanie Babies to old Playboy magazines, discontinued gun auctions in 1999, saying the Internet wasn't appropriate for dealing guns. Other sites followed, leaving online gun traders few places to turn.
Urvan, a computer consultant who had been toying with various Internet business plans, seized the opportunity. He and friends pooled several thousand dollars and had a site up within a month. Urvan projects year-end sales reaching more than $12 million.
"This was a slam-dunk, absolute no-brainer to jump on," said Urvan. "These people were going somewhere."
With an estimated 80 auction sites devoted to firearms and about 4,000 Web sites that have firearm sales, the federal government is paying attention. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is creating a unit to investigate firearms and explosives sales on the Internet, said ATF spokeswoman Tracy Hite.
"To date we have not seen that many cases of (illegal) firearms trafficking on the Internet," Hite said. "However, it is a potential problem that we are working to prepare for."
ON THE WEB:
Internet Gun Trafficking Act of 1999:
http://techlawjournal.com/cong106/guns/Default.htm
CNET.com's eBay gun ban article: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-341264 .html
State-by-state look at gun laws, from CNN: www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/schools/gun.control
------------------
"There's not much comfort in the fact that crime is down 6 percent. So instead of 100 criminals targeting you, now there are only 94. Whoop-dee-doo." -- Paxton Quigley