Word: atf
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Occasional-seller" unlicensed dealers and gun-show vendors should be regulated in the same way gun-shop owners are: with a waiting period required to allow for background checks, with their books maintained in the same way and inspected by the ATF, and with punishments meted out for those who sell to "straw buyers," those buying for criminals...
...Boston as in other cities, the joint ATF-police teams took a low-key approach. They asked a few questions and explained the new laws. They did not openly threaten dealers with investigation or prosecution, but the message was there. Of the city's 99 dealers, 82 voluntarily turned over their license or did not renew their application. "I think that tells you that bottom line, maybe they weren't complying," says Paul Evans, Boston's police commissioner. "They couldn't withstand the scrutiny, so they're out of business...
Last June an inspector auditing the books of a licensed dealer in Pekin, Ill., noticed that the dealer had sold 65 cheap handguns to a single customer named Donald Fiessinger. The inspector passed the tip to a special agent, who then ran the serial number of each gun through ATF's database. He found that one of the guns sold to Fiessinger had been recovered by Illinois state police from a different possessor during a traffic stop in May 1998. In requesting the formal police report on the incident, the agent talked to a state investigator, who mentioned that...
...ATF launched a formal undercover investigation and on Thursday, July 1, executed a search warrant at Fiessinger's apartment, where agents found 27 guns and rudimentary sales records. Among the names of customers was Benjamin Smith. At the time, the name meant nothing...
Last year ATF expanded the Yogi tracing studies to 27 cities. In February ATF added 10 more. Each Yogi city found unique patterns, but nearly all discovered the single biggest source of crime guns was the network of licensed dealers operating within their home states. The most important effect was to replace the hopelessness of the late '80s and early '90s with a confidence that the right measures aimed at the right targets could interrupt the flow of guns to the bad guys...