"Mayor Bloomberg's push to crack down on illegal gun sales has sparked a potential civil war in Dixie - between gun owners and gun sellers.
Virginia's largest pro-gun lobby yesterday threatened to boycott any gun shop there that settles a lawsuit with Bloomberg, who in May sued 15 gun shop owners in five states for allegedly selling firearms to illegal buyers.
Last month, two Georgia gun stores settled, agreeing to have their sales monitored by videotape and even a city-funded "special master" - raising concern among gun groups that other targeted shops could soon follow.
"Unless any future deal is dramatically different from the ones in Georgia, then yeah, we will boycott," vowed Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Civil Defense League, the state's largest pro-gun group.
"It's unreasonable scrutiny, and Bloomberg has really raised hackles."
Using private investigators, the city ran sting operations in 15 gun stores in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia - the origin of more than half of all illegal guns seized on city streets. Four of the 15 were in Virginia.
The lawsuit charged the stores with making illegal "straw" purchases, meaning one person picked out the gun but another signed the required background check, a method common among crooks.
"For us, the goal is to have people to play by the rules," said John Feinblatt, Bloomberg criminal justice coordinator. "It's unfortunate that anyone would have as their goal driving people out of business."
The back and forth came as the Republican Bloomberg announced he would take his case to the influential Congressional Black Caucus next week, where he'll headline a panel with Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) entitled "Crime in the Cities: America's Mayors Fight Back."
"Bloomberg is the leader among American mayors in the fight to stop illegal gun trafficking," said Rangel. "No conference on crime would be complete without him."
It's expensive as hell to fight such nuisance lawsuits, so smaller and/or stingier gun shops will cave in to such ridiculous demands, and that's always been one of the Left's biggest weapons in fighting the 2nd Amendment. Make the sales of guns and ammo so expensive that doing such business is no longer profitable, and there are a great many stores teetering on the brink of bankruptcy as they fend off one wave of liberal attack after another. Bloomberg and his ilk consider themselves to be royality...as do most Democrats...and don't find it at all odd to be whisked from venue to venue by scores of heavily armed men but detest the very thought of a less wealthy person owning a gun for his or her protection.
This isn't changing anytime soon. Not with the influx of illegals and the proliferation of minorities. Our biggest cities are the most dangerous, and also the most liberal. The ne'er do wells know precisely where to go for a free lunch that includes an unarmed populace so why not join the millions who make a living preying upon the hapless citizens who aren't permitted to fight back.
And the videotaping of purchases is a joke without a punchline. Most such stores post signs to notify customers of such goings on, and how difficult is it for someone who wants a gun but cannot legally own one to have a look then send someone in later on to do the purchasing. Not difficult at all. Criminals, you see, will always find a way to break or circumvent the law, and punishing THEM is what's needed, and NOT the innocent among us.
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