PATH Coalition employs Lies, Deception to Further Their Anti-Gun Agenda

For years the influence of the anti-gun organization the Brady Campaign has been rapidly dwindling due to the fact that the public is waking up to the fact that their ridiculous schemes do nothing to reduce crime and result only in restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens. This realization has led them, and similar organizations to stoop to new lows in order to gain support for their measures. The latest however is a new low, even for them.

The PATH Coalition, one of the Brady Campaign's anti-gun Sock Puppet organizations has resorted to lying in order to further its agenda. While gun owners have long been used to misleading wording, carefully finessed statistics, and omissions of fact, it is always interesting to see outright, blatant lies. On their home page they state:

Under current law, a person can go into a gun shop and buy 10, 20, even 30 handguns without incident. The next day, they turn around and sell them on the street to anyone willing to pay cash- no questions asked!

Here's a hint PATH: There is a government agency that will ask a whole lot of questions, it is called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and they would be very, very interested in such a situation, as would local law enforcement.

Here's the real deal:

1. Federal law requires that all licensed firearm dealers report the transfer of more than one handgun to an individual within 5 consecutive business days to the BATFE via an BATFE Form 3310.4 (As a licensed dealer, must I advise ATF if I sell more than one handgun to an individual?) A submission of that form for the purchase of 30+ handguns at a time is going to raise some eyebrows at the ATF and most likely result in an investigation.
2. In Pennsylvania it is a third degree felony to illegally transfer a handgun to another individual without doing the transfer through a licensed firearms dealer who performs the necessary background checks.
3. At both the federal and state level it is a felony to knowingly provide a firearm to any person who is ineligible to possess one.
4. At both the federal and state level is is a felony to lie on firearm transfer forms, specifically about who the true purchaser of a firearm is.

With that said it should be obvious that anyone engaging in the activity suggested by PATH is guilty of multiple state and federal felonies which will all be investigated due to the purchase report sent to the BATFE. If the BATFE and local police do their job and actually enforce these laws, such straw purchasers could spend decades in jail rather than punishing the majority of responsible firearm owners for the actions of criminals.

If we must have this debate over firearms, the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association calls on The Brady Campaign, PATH, and all other organizations to do so with the facts, not with fabrications that simply scare people into making uninformed decisions. If an organization can not make its point with the truth, then one must seriously question the point they are trying to make.