But state police say the event – the Middletown Great Gun and Knife Show – has become an open market for unscrupulous sellers who hawk weapons in the parking lot without conducting background checks on the buyers, a violation of federal law.
Over the weekend, two men were arrested by state police in separate incidents after they attempted to sell weapons to patrons of the gun show, police said. The deals were made inside the gun show, but the sales were made across the street in the parking lot.
OMG!
"
Attempting to sell weapons to patrons of the GUN SHOW!"
The men weren't registered vendors in the gun show, state police said.
Daniel Solomon, 40, of Glen Cove, was arrested and charged with the sale of a firearm at a gun show, a misdemeanor. He was given an appearance ticket for Town of Wallkill Court.
"
CHARGED with
"the sale of a firearm at a gun show, a misdemeanor."
How freakishly bizarre is THAT?!
Now, I don't know what the law is in NY -- whether they have mandated background checks between private sellers -- but I do know that the federal law requires only background checks if the seller is a FFL! If this guy was a FFL then he broke the federal law. If he is not, then he didn't break the federal law, but he may have broken some idiotic
state law. When the police themselves admit that the transaction would normally be perfectly okay except for the fact that it occurred at the location of a gun show, we have a real problem with the wrong-headedness of this moronic law.
State police said a security guard at the fairgrounds overheard Solomon talking with a man about selling a .45-caliber semiautomatic rifle for $400 in the parking lot.
I don't know every type of gun out there, and I know that many
lever-action rifles are chambered in handgun calibers, and I know that various high-end subguns are available in 9mm, .40, and perhaps .45, but I'm having trouble thinking of a semi-auto .45 rifle -- particularly one that would sell for only $400. Is this that weird Kel-Tec thingie?
When a state trooper rolled up on the two men making the deal, the vendor allegedly shoved the gun under a tarp on the back of his pickup truck and then crumpled up a handwritten receipt for the sale of the gun, tossing it away.
It's pretty sick that the "security" at the gun show is acting as "narcs" against sellers. I'm sure their excuse is that if they didn't try to do law enforcement's job, and find people selling against the rules, they would bear legal responsibility for the illegal sale. B.S. Since when is it the gun show management's responsibility to enforce the law as though they were police officers?
-blackmind
.