Gun Store Owner OK With Background Checks

"The man who wanted to buy a 9mm semiautomatic handgun filled out the required background-check forms at Bob's Gun Shop and left.

A worker at the Granby Street store logged the customer's identification into a computer, connecting with state and federal databases that look for outstanding warrants, felony convictions and handgun purchases within the previous 30 days - all blocks to gun purchases.

Virginia State Police denied the application, with a message via computer: "Not at this time." Almost immediately they followed up with a phone call to Bob's: Keep the customer there, or call him back.

The customer was wanted in Baltimore on a murder charge.

Store owner Robert Marcus called the man, saying his application had been approved. About 20 minutes later, the customer returned.

Four state troopers and a Norfolk policeman waiting discreetly inside converged on him as he approached the counter, wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him Monday afternoon, even as other customers continued to peruse merchandise.

Bob's Gun Shop employees said Roberts insisted to police that it wouldn't make sense for him to go in there if he knew there was an arrest warrant out on him.

"That's why it's so unusual for it to occur," Marcus, the shop's owner since 1989, said of the homicide arrest, "because most people are smarter than that."

He said his store gets one or two denials a week out of 100 attempted transactions but has never had one for something like this.

"The people of the commonwealth can rest easy tonight because there's a system in place and it works," Marcus said.

The quick turnaround does little to hinder Second Amendment rights, which is why gun-store owners are OK with it, he said."

Now isn't THIS a revelation...

I've met scant few gun-store owners "OK" with a citizen asking the governments permission to acquire a firearm, and even the ones that didn't think it was that much of a big deal wouldn't trumpet such a stupid thing to the media for all to see.

SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED means what it means. Treating us all like criminals waiting to be wrestled to the floor isn't exactly what the Founders had in mind. Mr. Marcus wouldn't get a red cent of my money and I hope that every last one of his usual customers get wind of this idiot's idea of what freedom is all about.

Thanks to Of Arms and the Law for the link.