Censure and Move On
All (OK, almost all) the gun bloggers are calling for the heads of CNN correspondent Drew Griffin and the anonymous Texan who violated subsections (a)(5) and (a)(3), respectively, of 18 U.S.C. 922 on national TV on Thrusday, February 17, 2005. To recap, the “straw purchase” allegation is a strawman; no such violation occurred. Nor did the Houston, TX seller Griffin contacted through GunsAmerica.com appear to have committed any crime; he lawfully sold his gun to a fellow Texan (whom I’ll dub “Mr. Straw”), which he had every right to do. However, if Mr. Straw turned around and transferred it to Mr. Griffin, a non-Texan, he violated 18 U.S.C. 922 (a)(3), and Griffin himself violated 18 U.S.C. 922(a)(5) if he brought it back to his home state. [Alternatively, it's possible that no laws were broken, and Griffin grossly misled viewers as to what he and Mr. Straw had actually done.]
Assuming the violations did in fact take place, I can think of few worse things that the ATF could do than to prosecute them aggressively.
