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Posted by: kwflatbed

Weapons Easy to Get; Traffickers Go Unpunished

GUNS ON OUR STREETS

• Team 5 Investigates Exposes Underground Gun Trade In Massachusetts
• Citizen Y Speaks Out
• Citizen X Speaks Out

BOSTON -- Massachusetts has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. Yet Team 5 Investigates has learned those laws haven't stopped the sale of illegal weapons, or the carnage they cause.

NewsCenter 5's Sean Kelly reported Thursday night that the firearms responsible for thousands of gun crimes all over Massachusetts are easily accessible, and the rogue dealers selling them are rarely put out of business.

Team 5 Investigates spent months interviewing police, prosecutors and the criminals pulling the trigger in the Massachusetts arms race to find out where these crimes guns come from.
The chosen gun for one drug dealer was a 9 mm semi automatic pistol. "Because it puts a nice hole in you, it never fails," the drug dealer said. Another criminal, a 24-year-old man known as "Citizen X," said he carries a .38 for the same reason, "This right here, you can get for a buck, a buck 50 ($100-$150). As long as it shoots, you're all set."

Gang members told Team 5 Investigates they like small firearms for their size. They're light, and easy to hide. When we asked one gangster how long it would take to get a gun, he said "Ten minutes; it's all about knowing the right people." Another one told us, "If you want a gun, it's easy to get. You go to the block, and you're all set."

Sometimes criminals don't even pay for their firearms. It's a growing phenomenon law enforcement faces, the "community gun." Weapons big and small stashed in parks, basements and outside schools. "You know automatically if you go down to where everybody meets that that gun is always going to be there," said Citizen X.

But how does it get there in the first place? And how do criminals all over Massachusetts responsible for more than 4,000 gun crimes a year manage to get their fingers on a trigger so easily? They visit men like Jermaine "Rico" Politano in Taunton, or Germaine Clinkscales in Brockton, seen in some undercover video shot by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in their efforts to crack down on street-level trafficking.

According to Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, "The problem, though, is instead of a few large illegal dealers in this state, we now have many small dealers who will sell maybe one, two, maybe five guns and there are many more of them, unfortunately."

Smaller dealers like Sukia O'Mere and Niya Mills who prosecutors say drove to Alabama last year and bought a small stash of weapons to sell for $800 a piece back in Boston.

Street -level trafficking, however, is not the only avenue for illegal gun purchases. Team 5 Investigates went undercover to a gun show in Vermont. Within minutes, we found a federally licensed dealer who was willing to sell us a semi automatic weapon and its magazine, even though we did not have a permit.

"We'll sell you the mag; we'll sell you the gun. What you do with it after you leave here is up to you. If you're going to take it somewhere where it's illegal, then you pay the price for that, not us," said the dealer.

Team 5 Investigates also found a private seller who was well aware of the law, and who said he was more than willing to break it.

Seller: "I'm not really supposed to sell handguns to Vermont residents, to non-Vermont residents."

Team 5: "I was just hoping I'd be able to find somebody up here and let money do the talking, you know?"

Seller: "Well you know the old Italian saying: make me an offer I can't refuse. You know what I mean? Then we can do something illegal."

Team 5: "I'm willing to do $2,500 cash."

Seller: "Twenty-five hundred cash, that's tempting. I was figuring around the same thing. You got that kind of money?"

We told him we'd have to get it.

Team 5: "I'll go do what I gotta do. Thank you, sir."

But we never went back to purchase a gun from either dealer and no laws were broken.

John Rosenthal is the founder of the anti-gun group Stop Handgun Violence. "I'd say being a gun dealer and a gun trafficker is great business when the federal government has virtually no effective gun laws to prevent it. We are surrounded by Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont where you don't even need an id or a background check to buy a gun," said Rosenthal.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis agreed with Rosenthal. "That particular problem really makes it difficult for us to get to the bottom of who is supplying a gun," said Davis.

Plus there's no national database to track where a gun goes after the first time it's sold. Congress hasn't allowed it. In a lot of cases, serial numbers are obliterated so that guns can't be traced. And laws haven't kept up with the underground market allowing dealers to avoid trafficking charges.

Despite that, U.S. Attorney and Acting Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Director Michael Sullivan is not proposing any changes. "I think generally speaking, the federal statutes are responsive to the challenges," said Sullivan.

So why, then, are the number of federal convictions against gun runners and dealers in Massachusetts down 50 percent from last year?

"Though the federal numbers may be down in regards to gun trafficking, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're not being even more aggressive in trying to address this particular problem," said Sullivan.

Increasingly, Sullivan says, he and his prosecutors are pushing more cases to the state level. But Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley says gun traffickers won't be permanently put out of business until the law is changed to go after smaller dealers. "A legislative idea that we will propose is just the mere possession of three or more firearms would infer that you were going to distribute," said Conley.

Changing gun laws will be difficult, however, because the gun lobby spends millions of dollars convincing lawmakers that we don't need more gun laws, but better enforcement of the ones we already have.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news...40/detail.html

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Posted by: Wolfman

Siftthrough all the drivel, hype and sensationalism and you'll find:

Quote:

But we never went back to purchase a gun from either dealer and no laws were broken.

No laws were broken. Too bad that hypocrite Rosenthal can't say the same. Wonder if his "straw purchase" ever got investigated or charged?

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Posted by: justanotherparatrooper

Right on point Wolfman! I saw that hit piece last night and was seething about a minute into it. Anyone think they did the right thing and turned those gang bangers in BEFORE they kill someone?

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Posted by: resqjyw0

What pissed me off isn't so much what is written in the article, but what is said in the video. Suffolk Cty. DA Conley wants to propose legislation that will infer a person's intent to distribute if they are found in possession of three or more guns.

So if one day I decide I'm going to go through my gun safe during the middle of the hunting season and clean all the guns I've used but haven't been cleaned yet, I could be in possession of three or more guns. Obviously I'm cleaning them up to distribute/sell them to get a little more money...

I hunt on the property of a club a belong to frequently during the hunting season and the hunting trips are usually a family affair. I usually hunt with my brother and dad. So lets say during he middle of the hunt we decide to take a break and go back to the club's parking lot and leave our guns on a picnic table. Two of us go into the clubhouse to either grab something to drink or use the restroom, while the other stays and watches over the guns (lets just say in this case that its me). An EPO decides to check the guys out hunting the land to make sure they're not poaching. Since I was left to watch over the guns, I'm in possession of three guns. The law would therefore infer that I had the intent to distribute/sell them. BULLSHIT!

Here is a hypothetical/unlikely situation but still possible. A lot of gun shops take in used guns to sell. Lets say I decide to have a gun shop sell off five of my guns as a bail out of a financial bind I'm in. On my way down to the gun shop I just happen to roll a stop sign and get stopped. Officer finds out I am in possession of more than three guns. I have the intention of selling them...legally, now what? Am I going to get screwed over because of some idiot?

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Posted by: Wolfman

...but it's for the CHILDREN!!!

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Posted by: pahapoika

as with all new gun laws the only people effected will be the law abiding gun owners.

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Posted by: resqjyw0

Quote:

Originally Posted by justanotherparatrooper Anyone think they did the right thing and turned those gang bangers in BEFORE they kill someone?

I can almost guarantee you they didn't. Job security...

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Posted by: kwflatbed

Reasons Kids Carry Guns Depend On Where They Live

BOSTON -- A fifth-grader was arrested in Boston after packing a pistol in his backpack and bringing it to class. Two high school students in Leominster were caught with weapons and a hit list. And in New Bedford, police arrested a high school senior for carrying a handgun inside his gym bag.

Team 5 Investigates examined why kids bring guns to school, and how they're able to get their hands on firearms in the first place. NewsCenter 5's Sean Kelly reported Friday night that the reasons kids carry guns to class, vary greatly depending on where they live.

Dr. William Pollack is a national expert on school violence. "When people are using a gun in an urban environment to do business or to protect themselves, they're smart enough not to bring them into a school and they're smart enough not to get caught. When kids are bringing guns into school in suburban, upper middle class neighborhoods, they're bringing them for the reason that they will be seen," said Pollack.
An analysis of state records by Team 5 Investigates showed in the past three years, almost 300 firearms have been confiscated in schools across the Commonwealth, including handguns, shotguns and rifles. Many of those firearms did not come from communities with the most reported gun crimes. Instead, many of them were confiscated from students in suburban school districts, including Framingham, Bellingham, Norwood and Newton, twice named the safest city in America. Only 14 percent of the kids caught with firearms were expelled.

A Team 5 analysis of state statistics found eight firearms seized in Boston schools in the last three years, eight in the Worcester school district during the 2003-2004 academic year and nine in Brockton from 2005-2006. Over a three year period police seized 29 guns in the Springfield district.

"Kids are bringing guns to either threaten other kids or because they're so hurt, they're so angry, they're so bullied, they're so suicidal, they've come up with a solution which is to either show a gun or use a gun," said Pollack.

But it's a different story in urban cities like Boston, where kids carry guns for another reason. One sixteen-year old student interviewed by Team 5 Investigates said he carries a small pistol for protection. "I'd rather get caught with it than caught without one, because I'd rather the cops find me with it than my enemy find me without it," said the student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Team 5 Investigates also interviewed a former gang member who said he carries a .38 for the same reason, although he said he never brought his gun to school. Instead, he said most city kids stash their weapons outside schools, in bushes and in basements where they're less likely to be found. When asked how 14- and 15- year olds are getting the money to buy firearms, the former gang member said, "Kids start young. If you're in a gang or a crew, it makes it that much more easy."

In the suburbs, kids usually get their firearms from family and friends. It's a frightening reality to the Rev. Shaun Harrison, who heads up Operation Project GO, a group that counsels kids in crisis, trying to convince them to give up their guns.

Kelly: "Do you ever ask them where do they get their guns?"

Harrison: "Oh yeah. A lot of them tell me they get them out of state, they go to the gun shows, they get them from New Hampshire, they get them from Vermont. Some say even down south."

Kelly: "Can it be stopped? Harrison: "You're looking at an ant trying to beat an elephant, you know? Guns are always going to come into the city one way or another."

Kelly: "So are you the ant?"

Harrison: "Of course. No matter how many guns we get off the street, if we take off 12 guns today, there's probably 24 more out there."

Police and prosecutors say part of the problem is that gun laws are weak and kids are often too willing to break them. Another school of thought is that adults need to do a better job of connecting with kids so they're not resorting to guns to solve their problems in the first place.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news...96/detail.html

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Posted by: justanotherparatrooper

Harrison: "Oh yeah. A lot of them tell me they get them out of state, they go to the gun shows, they get them from New Hampshire, they get them from Vermont. Some say even down south."

Ive been to hundreds of gunshows and not once have I ever seen anyone sell or infer to a kid that they would sell a minor a firearm. Most of the guys wont even let kids handle them because if the minor drops an exensive gun you have no legal recourse to compensation for the damage done. I hate these fuckin' hit pieces they do

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Posted by: Wolfman

Complete and utter trash journalism. Shameful. Bought and paid for by Rosenthal and moonbats for citizen...errrr subject control.

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Posted by: pahapoika

looks like they recycle this BS every year just like the details

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