Is Selling Illegal Guns to Honest Folks Profitable?

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USP45

New member
RonatITGS makes an interesting point,

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Criminals get no real $ for seelling guns until they sell them to honest people..[/quote]

Somehow this doens't make to much sense to me. How is it that a stolen gun could garner a higher price from an honest person, purchasing the firearm legally, then from a criminal, purchasing the weapon through the 'black market'?

Is there something i'm missing in this?



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~USP

"[Even if there would be] few tears shed if and when the Second Amendment is held to guarantee nothing more than the state National Guard, this would simply show that the Founders were right when they feared that some future generation might wish to abandon liberties that they considered essential, and so sought to protect those liberties in a Bill of Rights. We may tolerate the abridgement of property rights and the elimination of a right to bear arms; but we should not pretend that these are not reductions of rights." -- Justice Scalia 1998
 
It's possible that a thief would steal a gun and then sell it at market value to an unsuspecting, honest person. Voila! The thief made a profit.

If I understand Ron West's concept, he's trying to provide a service to the honest person who is buying a firearm from an individual.

If a thief steals my gun, I can tell Ron West and it goes on his board.

If you want to buy a gun from an individual, you can check to see if the gun is listed with Ron West.

The system isn't perfect.
- I have to tell Ron West about the theft of my gun.
- You must check Ron West's board before you buy the gun.

However, the system IS optional. If you don't like it, don't post your stolen guns and don't check there before you buy from an individual.

Easy enough.

Oh, if I can find the details of the guns stolen from me, I believe I'll send him the info. I'm still angry about the theft. ;)

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Either you believe in the Second Amendment or you don't.
Stick it to 'em! RKBA!
 
We can call the local Sherrifs department and do the same thing for nothing.Allso covers a lot more stolen guns that way.You don't want to get caught carring a stolen one.

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beemerb
We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world;
and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men
every day who don't know anything and can't read.
-Mark Twain
 
I doubt if it is profitable or attractive from the point of view of an ordinary working person. Even if they are not honest, they have better things to do.
But from the point of view of a young delinquent without a job or a drug addict, it might be. They have no money invested in the gun and lots of time on their hands, so anything they get for it is a plus for them. They need fences to unload the goods and it is commonly believed that the original thief recieves little for his efforts.
How the arm gets back into the hands of honest citizens who will pay full market value for it is a very merky area. Somehow the arm has to get into hands that are more plausible and how this fencing occures is, of course, very, very secretive. This happens not only with firearms, but with all valuable goods. There is a huge market for arms and al other valuable goods out there that has nothing to do with stores or shows, so it is out there somewhere that this action takes place, I would imagine.
The lawless don't pay much for straw purchases either, from the only account I have heard of a man who was caught doing it. They just look for someone with a clean record, not too much in the way of brains and who wants to make an easy $20-50. Or they get their girl friend to do it for free.
It would be nice if there were some reliable way to check if prospective purchaces were in fact stolen guns. The proposed isthisgunstolen database might be a start in this direction, but:
1. Owners/Users would have to be convinced that the board was not some government Trojan Horse secretly designed to destroy them. Right now, government has little crediblity among fire arms owners.
2. The data base would have to be much more comprehensive. Perhaps it could grow in time.
3. The legalities, responsibilities and liabilities of finding a stolen arm in one's collection would have to be clarified and would have to be made fair from the point of view of the finding party as well as the original victim.

[This message has been edited by Herodotus (edited July 06, 2000).]
 
Probably not profitable, but it might not be a bad idea. I know someone who spent the night in jail (arrested at the hospital) because the gun the police found in his glove compartment after he was involved in an accident came up stolen (bought legally from a licensed dealer). He had to post bail to get out (that's a big racket - you pay 10%, they keep it) just so he could go home, get the receipt, and make some phone calls to prove his innocence.

How many of us know every single firearm we own isn't listed on a police database as stolen? Personally, I think the info should be available.
 
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