Woman who bought guns charged in New York firefighter slayings

[bobclark86]

12. I bought my mother a rifle for Christmas a few years ago...

but since a) she's legally allowed to buy it herself, and b) it was a gift, it's not a straw purchase.

Lots of people straw purchase. A few months ago, a guy near me shot his neighbor and killed himself. They had a long-standing dispute and she had a restraining order put on him. He somehow managed to get the guns (plural) he used to shoot her, even though the court order said no. It's unknown if he passed a NICS check or if somebody just bought them for him (either is sadly very likely). Lots and lots of former drug dealers, felony DWI drivers and wife beaters have guns.

I think it's about time we start to prosecute straw purchasers (I don't have a source handy, but the last one I saw showed thousands of reports of straw purchasers annually, with only about 300 charged and about 150 actually convicted). Nobody has the money to try so many cases, which is really sad. That's what we get for making a hit of crack the same as 500 hits of cocaine and other lovely "war on drugs" laws.