hey debunkers, I need help - Democratic Underground

mimitabby

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Tue Sep-14-04 09:00 AM
Original message

hey debunkers, I need help

I got this from my mother who belongs to Mensa, a group with high
IQ's but not necessarily any common sense:

A message (the merit of which is obvious) from Bruce Parisi, Lake County
Indiana Libertarian Party chair, and Chicago Mensan:

>
> Don't Arrest Kerry in Shotgun Incident, Gun-Law Expert
> Says
>
> A Gun-law expert Alan Korwin is calling for calm in the
> national uproar over John Kerry's possible serious gun violations
> during a recent photo op in Racine, W.V.
>
> The national clamor over the Democratic presidential
> candidate, who took possession of a Browning semiautomatic shotgun
> outside his home state, reflects a problem with the laws and should
> not be used to arrest and prosecute the man, Korwin says.
>
> A gun crossing state lines is heavily regulated thanks to
> John Kerry and his ilk.
>
> "There are so many charges Kerry might face," according to
> Korwin, who has written seven books on gun laws, including the
> unabridged plain-English federal guide "Gun Laws of America."
>
> 1. Taking ownership of the shotgun gift, if he doesn't
> already have a valid Massachusetts Firearm Identification Card, could
> subject him to a two-and-a-half-year prison term in his home state.
> Since he has claimed publicly he owns firearms, chances are he has
> this critical piece of paper, Korwin says.
>
> 2. Bringing the firearm back to Massachusetts, if he
> received it from a private party, would be a federal felony under the
> 1968 Gun Control Act (five years in prison, $5,000 fine, 18 USC §922).
>
> 3. The only exemption that would allow him to bring it
> into his home state requires that he obtained it in a face-to-face
> transaction with a federal firearms licensed dealer (FFL). A private
> gift would not qualify.
>
> 4. If Kerry did get it from an FFL, he would have had to
> personally fill out and sign a
> 4473 form, required by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
> Explosives (BATFE), before the gift was given, under penalty of
> federal felony.
>
> 5. If Kerry did not personally undergo a "NICS" instant
> background check before the transfer from an FFL, he would have put
> the person conducting the transfer in some legal jeopardy, though the
> law contains a loophole that probably would save Kerry from additional
> harm (the dealer, not the recipient, suffers from failure to do the
> NICS check).
>
> While gun lobbyists are inflamed that Kerry introduced a
> law that would outlaw this particular type of sporting shotgun and gun
> gifts in general, it is a good thing the law has not passed yet,
> because then it might be too serious a problem to simply ignore.
>
> Korwin says that calls to indict Kerry are premature and
> "most certainly overkill. John Kerry should receive the same lenient
> treatment any other citizen deserves when innocently violating these
> complex and non-intuitive rules." At least give him a chance to
> explain, Korwin pleads.
>
> Unfortunately, federal authorities from BATFE have been
> known in the past to be inflexible in their enforcement of even minor
> technical violations (note that none of these felony violations
> involve a victim or any sort of harm).
> With widely circulated evidence, in the form of photographs of Kerry
> in obvious possession of the firearm, he could find himself subject to
> the long arm of the law.
>
> More importantly, Korwin says, "Some of these laws are
> just foolish, putting honest citizens at enormous and unjustified
> risk, and are so complicated that even a presidential candidate and
> his staff cannot figure them out."