As easily predicted a few days ago (link), the Philly Inquirer’s Monica Yant Kinney takes the direction that because Philadelphia’s lack of brotherly love is exhibited so frequently with gunshots, that the blame needs to be spread elsewhere. New bogeymen: urban gun stores (link):
Monica Yant Kinney: Gun trafficking: Spread the blame
By Monica Yant Kinney
Inquirer Columnist
Reading my colleagues’ recent investigation, “Justice: Delayed, Dismissed, Denied,” you may have noticed a theme in the criminal cases that stall and die in Philadelphia’s crazy court system: guns.Specifically, guns that their owners had no earthly right possessing, given their age or rap sheets.
Today, I introduce you to a guy who put guns in criminals’ hands. I’ll call him “Jerome,” because now that he’s served 41/2 years in federal prison, he’s walking a straight line. I’ve reviewed his court file and talked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about his two-year, 160-gun trafficking spree.
It began in 1996 after Jerome lost his job and a friend said he could make fast cash selling his 9mm Lorcin.
“I drove to North Philadelphia and waited in the car,” Jerome told me at a diner in Olney. “My buddy came out and gave me $300 in ones, fives, and tens.”
Like any savvy entrepreneur, he reinvested his earnings. “That same day, I bought two more guns for $110 each. I called the same guy and sold them for $600.”
Under Pennsylvania law, with a clean record, Jerome could buy as many guns as he could afford. The only snag? It was illegal.
“Almost from the beginning,” he said, “they knew what I was up to.”
Money to be made
Federal regulations require gun shops to report to the ATF anyone buying two or more weapons in a five-day period. Soon, a federal agent paid Jerome a visit, as is customary, to ask about his purchases.
He was scared but didn’t stop. Instead, he doubled down, shopping twice a week at stores such as Mike & Kates on Oxford Avenue and Delia’s on Torresdale.
He never had a problem unloading his wares to drug dealers.
“You can tell just by looking where there’s money to be made,” he told me. “I’d just pull up to a corner and open my trunk.”
…Sharing the blame
The more Jerome bought, the more he wondered about sellers who accepted his small bills, knowing that he bought weapons favored by criminals, not collectors.
“There was no way I could be buying five, six, seven guns a week and not be reselling.”
Mike & Kates owner Mike Panamarenko defended himself when I called. Selling guns, after all, is a legal business. “We’re not law enforcement. We can’t profile. To deny someone a purchase based on what-ifs or what might be could put you in a courtroom real fast.”
After owning his gun shop for 40 years, Fred Delia still struggles to read customers’ faces.
“One guy just came in here and bought five handguns. He hit the lottery,” Delia told me. “You don’t really know what they’re doing. They can lie. Just because you bought five guns doesn’t mean you’ve done anything illegal yet.”
In fall 1999, Jerome was charged with dealing firearms without a license. Investigators tallied at least 160 weapons – it could be double that – but recovered only 32. Prosecutors said one had been used in a drug-related homicide, a fact that haunts Jerome.
“I’ll never know what happened to those guns,” he fretted. “Someone might use one of them on me.”
…At the time, she said, several gun dealers were being investigated. How did the probe end? ATF officials wouldn’t tell me. The shops that Jerome frequented remain open.
Watching the news, Jerome knows he’s partly responsible for the city’s crisis of violence. But he thinks there’s blame to go around.
“I knew it would come to an end for me. I just wish those gun dealers were held accountable.”
What I don’t understand is how “Jerome”, even though he’s now served his time and seems genuinely repentent (Ohmygosh, someone might use one of the guns I sold illegally on me!), can’t have his true name attached to the crime. That’s nice that he’s done his time, but his name should forever be attached to his crime. Only in liberal media would newspapers be printing names of concealed carry permit-holders (link) in some areas and concealing identities of convicted criminals in others. There’s a big difference between serving your time and deserving forgiveness.
Sebastian @ Snowflakesinhell is also blogging this (link) and appropriately levels “Jerome”:
No, “Jerome,” you don’t get to assuage your guilt by trying to shift the blame onto the dealers you deceived about the legality of the sale they were making. You’re the one that swore to the dealer and federal authorities you were the actual buyer of the firearm when you signed off on 4473. You’re the piece of shit that took the guns and opened up your trunk and sold them to criminals. It’s all on you my friend. You served your time, not nearly enough in my opinion, but if you’re living the straight life now, congratulations. I hope you learned something. But if you really want to convince us you’re reformed, and not that bleeding heart Inquirer columnist, you need to start by accepting full responsibility for what you did.
Remember, the Philadelphia Inquirer opinion pages are very cozy with Ceasefire (link). As I noted in the comments at Sebastian’s: 160 guns in two years means 6.7 guns per month, and if sometimes he bought multiple guns, at different shops, with possibly different cashiers, how do you blame the sellers? And as far as enforcement: the ATF caught, prosecuted, and jailed the perpetrator.
One other side note is how gun shops become “gun dealers” in the language of newstilt (file that away). As I said in a prior post, until the papers are ready to do with the politically incorrect causations of urban violence and the way lives are callously thrown away each day, we’re unlikely to see much change. You can shut down the urban gun stores, and those who seek to profit on the black market will travel further.