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As a retired federal agent and a certified handgun instructor of honest gun owners, I appreciated the fine article on Page A8 of the June 23 edition. The article said, "Background checks blocked a record high 300,000 gun sales." In the article it reported, "making a false statement in connection (with a gun purchase) with a background check is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a hefty fine, but few people are prosecuted." Why are few people prosecuted? The next paragraph in the article says it all: " In 2017, just 12 out of the 112,000 people denied a gun purchase were federally prosecuted." Again, why?
I suggest before all honest citizens are required to endure Universal Background checks before a father gives his duck gun or deer rifle to his son, he must go fill out a federal BATFE Form 4473, pay a fee to do so, when only 12 of 112,000 felons are prosecuted for violating existing federal gun control laws is a travesty!
Why do we "need" more gun control laws when clearly the existing laws are not being enforced? The BATFE Form 4473 needed to be completed before a gun is purchased asks for name, date of birth, SSN, address and then a list of questions must be answered and cleared by a phone call to the FBI. Savvy bad guys have a friend or relative buy a gun under their name because they will pass the background check and then they give the gun to the bad guy. That is known as a "straw purchase" and the prosecution level for those easy cases is as low as, or lower, that the blocked records. Why?
When will the existing gun control laws be fully enforced? Why pass more laws only honest gun owners will comply with while the criminals "walk" everyday in America?
RON BENJAMIN
Mansfield
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