When a liberal Trump hater legally purchased a budget pistol and pump shotgun, hauled them across the country and stormed the White House Correspondence Dinner in an attempt to kill President Donald Trump and other administration officials, many gun-ban advocates reacted by blaming “lax gun laws.”
That claim holds no water, however, as California, where many purchased the guns, and Washington, D.C., where he used them in the violent attack, have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation.
The Bloomberg-funded anti-gun media mouthpiece The Trace, however, chose to place the blame in another place it didn’t belong—on the California retail chain that sold the would-be assassin his guns. Thankfully, David Keane, senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), is calling out The Trace for its dishonesty in using that despicable tactic.
In its report, The Trace tries to make it sound like Turner’s Outdoorsman in Torrence, California, was somehow responsible for the attack simply because the violent attacker purchased his firearms there.
“Eight months before Cole Tomas Allen sprinted past a security checkpoint with his shotgun in an alleged attempt to kill President Donald J. Trump, he walked into Turner’s Outdoorsman in Torrance, California, and purchased the weapon, a Mossberg pump-action 12-gauge,” The Trace reported. “If convicted, Allen would join a long list of criminals armed with guns from the Turner’s Outdoorsman chain. With over 30 outlets across California, Turner’s Outdoorsman is the biggest gun seller in the nation’s most populous state. A first-of-its-kind analysis of California Department of Justice data by The Trace shows that Turner’s is connected to more crime guns than any other California dealer or chain.”
As NSSF Keane pointed out in his report on the deceptive story by The Trace, the entire story is based on a claim that isn’t even remotely true.
“There’s no proof that the firearm retailer did anything illegal,” Keane wrote. “The firearms sold were transferred after the purchaser filled out the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Form 4473. That’s the form that requires the transferee, or purchaser, to verify that they are not a prohibited person, a fugitive from the law, dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military and that individual taking possession of the firearm is the true, intended recipient of the firearm. Individuals lying on that form risk a felony conviction, which carries a 15-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.”
As Keane further pointed out, the sale also must be approved by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). When firearm retailers ensure that these steps are completed and any accompanying state requirements are met, firearm transfers are legal. In California, that means a firearm retailer also runs a background check through the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ), the purchaser must wait 10 days to take possession of the firearm purchased at retail, must obtain a permit to purchase a firearm and must register that firearm with law enforcement.
“What’s shady are The Trace’s assertions,” Keane wrote. “Don’t take our word for it. Take the word of the ATF, the bureau that regulates the firearm industry and puts illegal gun traffickers in prison.”
Buried deep in the article is the admission that large retailers, especially chain stores, are “unlikely to engage in risky sales, much less trafficking.” But it’s unlikely most people will get to that part of the story, even though it directly contradicts the theme of the headline and the rest of the story.
Ultimately, Keane wrote that the shoddy, misleading reporting rests directly on shoulders of The Trace and its decisively anti-gun slant.
“The shame here belongs to Bloomberg’s anti-gun mouthpiece, The Trace,” he concluded. It’s clear, though, they have no shame when it comes to ignoring the truth.”
Read the full article here