A judge in Brooklyn
says New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg didn't break the law when he sent civilian private investigators to other cities in a "sting operation" designed to catch federally licensed gun sellers engaging in straw purchases.
But what The New York Times doesn't tell you is that this ruling by the judge means the gun dealers Bloomberg targeted ALSO didn't break the law.
A straw purchase occurs when someone knowingly buys a firearm for someone else, allowing the actual purchaser to avoid going through the background check and paperwork. The person selling the firearm is forbidden from selling a gun to someone if they know the person with the money isn't the actual buyer. It's entirely possible for the buyer of the gun to engage in a straw purchase while the seller remains innocent. But it's impossible for the seller of the firearm to engage in a straw purchase without the buyer breaking the law, too.
In the case of Bloomberg's "sting," the judge in Brooklyn says the firearms purchased by the private investigators never changed hands. In other words, no straw purchase occurred. Not for the private investigators and not for the federally licensed firearms dealers. Yet Bloomberg smeared these dealers, calling them the "worst of the worst," blaming them for New York's violent gun crime, and suggesting he'd caught them breaking the law.
In reality, Bloomberg caught himself in a lie. No surprise, given what we've seen from Hizzoner over the past couple of years. But don't expect to hear that side of the story from the mainstream media.
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