I thought it was a Chicago sting? Maybe I was mixing it up with the one I read about in Newsweek.
There were some things in there that were exaggerated like the (Omigawd!) "Assault rifle!!" that was bought. And the fact that a man told her he was a "felon" but still was able to pass the background check. To me that sounds like he wasn't a felon...?
I have a problem scenario for everyone: Say a minority person goes into a gun store acting like a "gangsta" and wants to buy a gun. The dealer "gets a bad vibe" and tells the person that he refuses to sell to him because he just isn't sure if he is a "good person". DOES ANYONE ELSE HERE SMELL A LAWSUIT COMING? A dealer can not just refuse to sell to someone because they look shady. That is called discrimination, and probably racism by the time it got to court. So, what are these dealers supposed to do? Only sell to people that look like good guys? And what would be the criteriea for that? I wish that people had the right to refuse service to people, and I would want to if they looked shady, but in today's world of lawsuits for discrimination, you can't just tell someone that you refuse to sell to them because they don't look like a good person.
But, I must admit that I was a bit appaled at the FFL's activities. Yes, they are only th one percent, and they are not representative of many FFL's, but some of those people should be punished. One Sports Authority salesman stood there and told the buyers that they were all commiting a serious felony as he sold the gun. He should be punished for commiting a crime. Let's not demonize all FFL's because of the %1 of bad ones (he wasn't even an FFL, just a dork salesman anyway!), let's weed out the bad ones and punish some to the point where no more of them want to risk breaking the law.
I called Bob Swanson once, before I knew what a "straw man" sale was, and told him I wanted to buy a P7M13, but I would have to have my friend come buy it because I couldn't get an FFL to receive it for me. He said "sorry, that is a straw man sale, and I can't risk that...this is my livelihood". I said "sorry, I never heard that term and did not know it was illegal". This was almost a year ago.
Not all dealers are bad...in fact even the enemy states that only %1 are bad...so %99 are good. Try to find %99 good people in any group. We will never rid ourselves of the small percentage of people that ruin it for everyone, but we can try to punish them instead of all the good ones.
thaddeus