Half Of Cop-Killers In 2013 Were Prohibited From Having A Gun... But Got One Anyway

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/14/half-of-2013-cop-killers-prohibited-from-guns_n_7280430.html

In 2013, there were 25 incidents in which officers were shot and killed with guns that weren't their own, according to FBI data. The report -- set to be released Thursday by the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety -- shows 13 of those murders, or 52 percent, were committed by men who were barred by law from either purchasing or possessing a gun because of prior criminal convictions, mental illness or other factors.

You can view the report here:
http://everytown.org/documents/2015/05/law-enforcement-officers-shot-to-death-in-2013.pdf?preview=true

According to PBS Frontline the largest source of guns for criminals is straw purchases, when a person legally buys a gun and transfers it to someone who cannot legally own one.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html

How do gunners respond to this information? Typically it's, "Straw purchasing is already against the law, we don't need more laws." Never anything about how the law might be better enforced or how straw purchases can be made more difficult. NEVER.

As things are now, to track a crime gun to the legal purchaser the BATF&E has to trace the serial number from the manufacturer to the retail outlet that sold it. Then the retailer must go through the records of sales (in paper records, not computerized) and find the name of the purchaser of that serial number (gun stores are required to keep these paper records and make them available to law enforcement for crime tracking purposes). Once the legal buyer is found in all but a few states the straw buyer simply says s/he lost the gun or it was stolen and the issue dies.

How can the system be changed to make the process more workable?

1. Universal background checks. No, it won't stop the straw purchaser but it will prevent law abiding gun sellers from un-knowingly selling to a criminal. In private gun sales the law is that one cannot KNOWINGLY sell to a prohibited person. How the hell do I know if the guy in the Walmart parking lot is a felon? The gunners oppose UBC because it is an inconvenience.

2. Make it the law to report lost or stolen guns within a few days of discovering the gun lost or stolen. This would make it difficult to transfer guns to prohibited persons by limiting the number of "lost/stolen" guns. If one person reports a lost/stolen gun every few weeks or months it will alert the local law enforcement of a possible straw buyer. Gunners oppose this because it may incriminate the owner of the lost/stolen gun when it shows up at a crime scene. In fact it would give cover to the owner of a genuine lost/stolen gun.

3. Modernize the record keeping system to transfer electronically all sales records, including private sales, to the BATF&E . This would dry up the black market as law enforcement could quickly track crime guns back to the buyer which will impact the number of straw buyers. If someone is sure that the gun will be traced back to them they will not be likely to hand it off to a criminal. Gunners oppose this because they are paranoid and afraid that Obama will come and get their guns. The system could do that now but it takes weeks or months to trace through the paper system.

These things will greatly reduce the number of guns in criminal hands and not unduly burden a law abiding gun owner. All of these things are opposed by the NRA and 2nders.