Pennsylvania Getting Tougher on Straw Purchasing in a Bumbling Sort of Way [View all]

[mikeb302000]

Philly.com reports

PEOPLE WHO BUY guns and then hand them over to criminals could soon face a mandatory five-year prison sentence, thanks to a bill passed unanimously by the state Senate Wednesday.

The bill would create a five-to-10-year sentence for any offender convicted of making multiple "straw purchases" of guns. It passed overwhelmingly in the state House last year and now goes to Gov. Corbett, who is expected to sign it into law.

Straw purchasing - buying a gun for a person who can't legally buy one because of a criminal record - drew attention last month after authorities determined that the gun used to kill Plymouth Township Police Officer Bradley Fox had been illegally purchased. The man who officials say bought that gun is accused of buying eight others for the cop's alleged shooter, Andrew Thomas, in a four-month period.

In Philadelphia, guns were used to commit more than 80 percent of the city's homicides in 2011, and more than 3,000 illegal guns were recovered by police during the same time period, according to the District Attorney's Office.

This is good, we should definitely take gun crimes like straw purchasing more seriously, but I'm afraid it doesn't go far enough. The only people caught up in this are the rare cases when a gun which is used in a serious crime is traced back to the original buyer. Thanks to the NRA and the gun-rights fanatics who oppose any and all laws, tracing guns back to original buyers is not that easy.

I have a better plan. Straw Purchasing - The Solution. It works like this.

Any gun purchaser must be licensed and each weapon bought must be registered to him.

The registration document and firearm must be presented to the local police after three months from purchase and each year thereafter in order to receive a stamp allowing continuance of the legal registration.

Failure to present oneself will result in issuance of an arrest warrant.

Now, that's the way to stop straw purchasing. The combination of licensing owners and registering weapons as well as stiffer sentencing for straw purchasing will put an end to it.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.
Cross posted at Mikeb302000