The problem with punishing dealers over straw buys is that, in a lot of cases, it’s not that easy to tell it was a straw buy. While some are pretty stupid about it, a lot are far more low-key.
A few years ago, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison took aim at Fleet Farms, a chain of basically hardware stores throughout the state and neighboring states, which also sells guns.
Ellison alleged that the store facilitated multiple straw buys, including one used in a supposed mass shooting. (I say “supposed” because it looks like a lot of people were injured, but only one person was killed. That doesn’t meet the valid definition of “mass shooting” in my book.) So, Ellison sued Fleet Farsm
Three years later, the chain caved.
Fleet Farm has agreed to pay $1 million and implement “significant” policy changes to prevent the illegal sale of guns to straw buyers, which is a person who purchases a firearm on behalf of someone else.
That is part of a new settlement announced by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office Tuesday.
“I took Fleet Farm to court after the company put the lives of Minnesotans in danger by ignoring clear warning signs and selling guns to straw buyers,” said Attorney General Ellison. “The warning signs that Fleet Farm ignored were so clear that Fleet Farm themselves went on to use those sales as examples of obvious red flags in internal trainings. On behalf of the people of Minnesota, we are holding them to account for that callous behavior. Today’s settlement forces the company to significantly change their internal policies to protect the people of Minnesota and imposes a substantial financial penalty on them.
Now, the problem here is that I don’t believe Ellison any farther than I can throw the state of Minnesota, so I’m skeptical that these were that bad. If he’s not lying for once, though, then yeah, they didn’t have a lot of choice but to settle and move on with it.
And considering what a pain a lawsuit can be, and how expensive they can be, even if it wasn’t that bad, I still sort of get it.
The problem is that using examples in training doesn’t really tell us much.
Anyone with half a brain can tell that the guy who comes in, handles all the guns, talks about what he likes and dislikes about each one, then has someone else fill out the paperwork and pay for the gun is a straw buyer. There are other examples that aren’t so obvious, and if those turn out to be straw buys, the clues could be subtle and worthy of being used in training as to things that aren’t obvious, but clerks should be on the lookout for.
So I’m not sold on anything other than that Fleet Farms is paying a million to make this all go away.
Ellison will now move on to see how he can screw with other lawful gun dealers and make their lives difficult, I’m sure, because it’s not like he respects anyone’s right to keep and bear arms in the first place.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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