Little impact locally from latest gun rule

By SILVIO J. PANTA
Imperial Valley Press Staff Writer
1:55 AM PDT, July 13, 2011

Not one to mince words about the federal government, Robert Hayes expressed dismay over a program requiring gun retailers to provide officials with information about the sale of high-powered rifles.

There’s only one problem, Hayes explained Tuesday. Such weapons of the kind drug cartels use cannot be bought or sold in California, said Hayes, owner of The Gun Shop in El Centro.

Furthermore, said Hayes, the new policy announced this week by the U.S. Justice Department won’t have much of an impact locally because the weapons legally sold in this state don’t fall under the category of a high-powered, assault rifle.

“Basically, it has no effect on us whatsoever,” Hayes opined. “It’s a huge tempest in a teapot and has virtually no impact on sales in California.”

Gun retailers in California and in three other states are being required to alert federal officials about the purchase of more than two semi-automatic rifles to anyone in a five-day period. The program is intended to help the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stem the tide of gun-trafficking south of the border.

The three other states involved in the effort are Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Authorities with the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to say anything publicly and deferred all comments about the merits of the program to the ATF.

Christian Hoffman, ATF spokesman, was not able to respond to questions about the gun retailer program.

While the federal program is aimed at retrieving information about the multiple sales of semiautomatic weapons, it comes after mounting criticism over the federal government’s Operation Fast and Furious gun tracing program which was aimed at combating gun-trafficking along the Arizona border with Mexico.

But congressional testimony revealed that under Operation Fast and Furious an estimated 1,800 guns were unaccounted for and roughly two-thirds of them are probably in Mexico, according to an Associated Press news story.

California law already requires gun retailers to report “long gun” sales of shot guns and rifles to the state government, said Bill DuBois, operator of Border Tactical indoor shooting range.

In addition, state law forbids anyone from purchasing more than one handgun every 30 days, DuBois said. Perhaps complicating matters, is that the state’s definition of an assault rifle differs from that of other states, DuBois said.

Gun retailers want to cooperate with the law, but DuBois said, “any new law has to be careful that it has any actual impact on crime.”
http://www.ivpressonline.com/news/ivp-news-little-impact-locally-from-latest-gun-rule-20110713,0,6938545,print.story

Staff Writer Silvio J. Panta can be reached at 760-337-3442 or at spanta@ivpressonline.com

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