Kerry’s Illegal (?) Gun
Yesterday I took Matt Drudge to task misquoting two irrelevant federal laws in connection with John Kerry’s receipt of a shotgun his own bill would have banned, and then quietly removing all evidence of his screwup. Now, however, it looks like Drudge may have been closer to the truth than I thought. After reading this entry from Matt at Stop the Bleating, it seems that unless the donor of the gun, United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts, holds a federal firearms license (FFL) or involved someone who did, his gift to Kerry was in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(a)(5), which generally prohibits a non-licensee from transfering a firearm to any person he “knows or has reasonable cause to believe does not reside in … the State in which the transferor resides.” In that case, Kerry himself would not have violated any law merely by receiving the gun, but will be in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(a)(3) if he brings it back to Massachusetts without going through an FFL.
At this time, we have no reason to assume that Cecil Roberts was stupid enough to simply hand John Kerry a gun without involving a an FFL in the process. It’s also possible, as Matt has suggested, that the whole “gift” was really just a brief loan and a photo op, in which case the GCA will not be implicated at all. But it’s also possible that Drudge’s original story, now buried in the memory hole, was almost correct.
September 8th, 2004 at 1:25 pm
Once again, the terrible, awesome presence of the Law stands in control over the termbling, fearful shadow of Common Sense.
How many shotguns of various manufactures have made their way in to the White House over the last several decades? And how many of those under the benign protection of a FFL?
I’m not saying that Kerry (or anyone else in his position) should be above the Law, just that sometimes, as Shakespeare once said, the law is an ass.
Matt’s most recent post tells me he gets it, too.
September 8th, 2004 at 2:36 pm
That’s a fair point. However, I find it hard to muster too much sympathy for anyone who gets caught up in the web of confusing, arcane gun laws even while pushing constantly for even more of them.
September 9th, 2004 at 2:18 pm
I imagine most gun gifts given to the President personally or to the President-the-Office, or even to any candidate are presented in person by a non-dealer, and then transferred via dealer after the photo-op. (And those that are not, I imagine swiftly are as soon as someone points out that they need to be. With a politician involved in a friendly manner, I suspect ATFE’s response will be much closer to a “No, no, go do it right, damn it” than an “You’re going to jail, badman!”. Sad that it isn’t the first more often.)
This is all entirely a non-issue, even if Kerry is a gun-grabbing wanker.