Han wrote:
Mark & Juanita wrote in
:

Bloomberg has a radically anti-gun agenda and has run afoul of
federal
laws in his attempts to conduct entrapment operations with his agents
and also has been thwarted from attempting to allow lawsuits against
gun manufacturers by relatives of homicide victims. The latter is
the equivalent of allowing relatives of those killed by drunk
drivers to sue GM or Ford.

I respect your view. Nevertheless, the opposing view is that lax laws
and/or enforcement allows gun sales "down south" to get guns shipped
illegally to NE metropolitan areas. Whether the actual sellers and/or
gun manufacturers are indeed complicit in the operation(s) or just
ignore the possibility is not irrelevant.

The gun manufacturers won't ship to anyone who does not have a Federal
license. It is not their job to ensure that the Federal government properly
issued the license. The "lax laws down South" are the same Federal laws as
apply everywhere else.

Guns should not be in the hands of irresponsible/criminal people in
urban areas.

There is general agreement on this. What of it?

period. I believe you all would agree. How to prevent
this is the problem. In my honest opinion, sales by
dealers/distributors to dubious characters should be punishable.

It is. By Federal law, every time a dealer sells a gun to anyone he has to
conduct a background check. Any who fails to do so is subject to losing his
license and to criminal prosecution. Distributors are not allowed to sell
firearms to anyone who does not have a Federal license to engage in
interstate commerce in firearms.

Bloomberg et al indeed try to move the "culprit" label further up the
supply chain, but then, there is no evidence of gun manufacturers or
distributors to help prevent the guns from ending up in the wrong
hands.

So let me get this straight. You're saying that a company that in good
faith sells a product to a customer who has a license from the Federal
government to purchase that product should then be held liable if the
customer turns out to be a criminal? I'm sorry, but you're blaming the
wrong party. If a criminal has a license from the Federal government then
it's the government that has done wrong, not the seller. And if the Federal
government is issuing Federal Firearms Licenses to criminals then I don't
see how more laws are going to fix the problem.

Until gun manufacturers/distributors/dealers make real honest
efforts to prevent guns from ending up in the wrong hands, I am in
favor of trying to prevent the initial gun sales.

So what efforts would you have them make beyond trusting the Federal
government to not issue licenses to criminals?

AND OF COURSE,
real good penalties for the miscreants who buy and use them illegally.

5-25 years in Federal prison over and above any state penalties good enough
for you?