Gun Sales

During the 2008 presidential campaign, the National Rifle Assn. spent millions of dollars on political ads claiming that Democratic candidate Barack Obama was out to take Americans' guns away; one typical ploy was an NRA website, called GunBanObama.org, whose banner headline read, "Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history. " In the wake of Obama's election, gun sales soared and ammunition prices skyrocketed as consumers stockpiled bullets in preparation for a war on gun rights that never happened.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, the National Rifle Assn. spent millions of dollars on political ads claiming that Democratic candidate Barack Obama was out to take Americans' guns away; one typical ploy was an NRA website, called GunBanObama.org, whose banner headline read, "Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history. " In the wake of Obama's election, gun sales soared and ammunition prices skyrocketed as consumers stockpiled bullets in preparation for a war on gun rights that never happened.

This conservative city is taking an unusual, some might say extreme, step to try to stem its fiscal woes: It's entering the gun business. The Colorado Springs City Council is expected in coming weeks to approve the final details of a program that would allow the police department to sell confiscated firearms to federally licensed gun dealers. Police have already stopped melting down the hundreds of guns they collect from crime scenes, drug houses or just from civilians who don't need them anymore.

"Fast and Furious," the federal government's ill-fated operation to track gun sales along the Mexican border, set out to penetrate drug cartels before it spiraled out of control. Under the program, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives watched, but did not arrest, purchasers of high-powered weapons with hopes of tracking the guns back to the cartels. Instead, the ATF lost track of more than 1,700 guns, some of which later turned up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, including two found near Tucson where a Border Patrol officer was shot to death.

Re "City Sets Sights on Gun Sales," Jan 23. The Cindy Miscikowskis and Mike Feuers of this world just do not get it. The addition of more restrictions on the legal purchase of firearms will do nothing to deter violent crime. . . . We do not have the resources to adequately enforce all gun legislation currently in place. To add another layer of "protection" (i.e. another bureaucratic impediment to the legal purchase of firearms) is ludicrous. The only thing that fingerprinting will accomplish is soiling the fingers of potential purchasers.

Re "Council Panel Supports Limits on Gun Purchases," Jan. 14: So no one testified against L.A. City Council member Mike Feuer's plan to implement yet one more of Sarah Brady's acts of harassment against law-abiding gun owners. Could this be because his committee is a cozy, self-absorbed cabal of 2nd Amendment foes? One more reason to work for secession from Los Angeles. MARSHALL BUCK West Los Angeles Your story regarding the proposed one-gun-per-month sales restriction now being considered by the L.A. City Council was most interesting.

Re "Senate Panel OKs Gun Sale Limit," June 9: Kudos to the state Senate Public Safety Committee for moving AB 202 along--a bill that will limit the sale of guns to one per month per purchaser in California. However, it is puzzling why this law would exempt movie and television companies (among a few other categories) from such limitations. Is it that these companies need more individual gun protection or that they need to purchase more guns for "just" entertainment shows? Either way the smell is bad when contrasted with two other articles published the same day, "Theater Owners Plan ID Checks at R-Rated Films" and "Studios Squirm in the Hot Seat," which both refer to the "public revulsion over violence in entertainment."

Brazilians head to the polls today to decide whether the sale of firearms should be banned. Although Brazil's constitution does not guarantee a right to bear arms, polls show a majority are likely to oppose the ban, which would grant exceptions for police, the military, some security guards, gun collectors and sport shooters. Gun violence kills nearly 40,000 people a year in Brazil. A 2003 law sharply restricted who could purchase guns.

In a confidential deposition with congressional investigators, the then-head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives blamed agents, field supervisors and even his top command for never advising him that for more than a year, his agency allowed illegal gun sales along the southwestern U.S. border. The deposition, which was taken in July and was recently obtained by the Washington bureau, shows that Kenneth E. Melson was irate. Even his chief intelligence officer at ATF headquarters was upset with the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious, but did little to shut it down, Melson complained.

The investigation into a federal operation that allowed Mexican drug cartels to acquire U.S. weapons escalated Thursday with new revelations that an Arizona gun dealer repeatedly expressed fears that his guns were falling into the "hands of the bad guys" but was encouraged by federal agents to continue the sales. A series of emails released by congressional investigators showed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives encouraged the gun dealer against his better judgment to sell high-powered weapons to buyers he believed were agents for the drug cartels.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wanted to illustrate that buying a gun like the one used in the recent Arizona shootings is as easy as buying "a hamburger and fries at a McDonald's. " So he sent out undercover investigators to help him prove it. But not in his own city. This time, the mayor sent New York investigators to Arizona. So what do gun sales in Arizona have to do with life in New York? Bloomberg has long campaigned for tougher federal gun regulation ? after all, he argues, most illegal firearms that cause carnage on the streets of New York are bought on the streets elsewhere, usually in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

"In America," says Josh T. Ryan at the start of every episode of "Lock 'n Load," a new reality series premiering tonight on Showtime, "a new gun is manufactured every 10 seconds. And all sorts of people are buying them." As that works out to 3,153,600 new guns a year -- about three-quarters the number of new people who are manufactured in America over the same period -- one would think that, yes, there will have to be some variety. That number does not seem to be too high, or too low, to Ryan, who works at the "family-owned" Shootist gun shop outside of Denver -- it is not his family that owns it -- where he keeps up a steady stream of chatter as he puts customers in the gun of their dreams.

There's a bull market for bullets. Stacks of ammo, once piled high at gun shops across America, have dwindled. Prices paid by consumers for much-sought-after Winchester .380-caliber handgun bullets have doubled. At weekend gun shows, trailers loaded with boxes of ammunition are drained within hours. Budget-pressed police departments, which can't be caught short, have increased their orders just to be safe, and the U.S. military, fighting two wars, has seen its need for bullets quadruple in recent years.

This conservative city is taking an unusual, some might say extreme, step to try to stem its fiscal woes: It's entering the gun business. The Colorado Springs City Council is expected in coming weeks to approve the final details of a program that would allow the police department to sell confiscated firearms to federally licensed gun dealers. Police have already stopped melting down the hundreds of guns they collect from crime scenes, drug houses or just from civilians who don't need them anymore.

The gun crowd has a saying: Guns don't kill; people do. But doesn't that just mean that people shouldn't have guns? Call me a wimp, but I'm almost as afraid of guns as I am of anybody dumb enough to smash car windows because the Lakers won the championship (and no, the city should not pay a nickel for the parade, even though witless Mayor Villaraigosa initially offered to cover half the cost for those multimillionaires while preparing layoff notices for working stiffs).

A week after the election of the nation's first black president, gun buyers across the country are flocking to gun stores to stock up on assault rifles, handguns and ammunition. Some say they are worried that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will attempt to re- impose the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. Others fear the loss of their right to own handguns. A few say they are preparing to protect themselves in the event of a race war.