back to http://www.claytoncramer.com
There’s a hole in the FBI’s national
firearms background check system, I think—and it is a hole that gun rights
activists will want fixed, pronto. As
you are aware, to buy a gun in the U.S. through a licensed dealer, there is an
“instant” background check. (I put “instant”
in quotes much of the time, it happens very quickly. For some people, especially if they have a very common name, or
one very similar to a prohibited person, it can take several days.)
Does the background check system work? Gun control advocates have been complaining
for a long time about what they call the “gun show loophole.” By this, they mean that many states have no
law prohibiting transfers of firearms between private parties. While there are certainly such transfers
taking place at gun shows, they also take place in many other places as well.
I’ve long had some concerns about these
private party transfers—and you don’t have to be a gun control advocate to know
why. If you were a criminal, and wanted
a gun that couldn’t be traced, buying a gun without paperwork would be the way
to get an untraceable gun.
I’m sure that most of the people that buy
guns from private parties are honorable persons—I’ve done it myself before—but
still, there are some bad guys out there.
I am not comfortable with the federal government prohibiting private
party transfers—but I do see that there is potentially a problem. For that reason, I was rather surprised by a
recent incident that suggests that the private party transfer problem may not
be as big as I would have guessed.
Do you remember an incident in
mid-September when four police officers were shot in Miami, Florida with an
AK-47? One of the officers died. Unsurprisingly, it produces a burst of gun
control agitation for restoring the federal assault weapon ban that was allowed
to expire in 2004, some of it editorials pretending to be news coverage.[1]
The first reports identified a Kevin Wehner
as the suspect in these killings, described by one newspaper as “a Jacksonville
resident with no criminal record.” But
Kevin Wehner went to the police at once, after seeing himself identified as the
killer, and explained what had happened.
A man named Shawn Labeet had stolen
Wehner’s identity—and soon Labeet had a driver’s license with Kevin Wehner’s
name. With that driver’s license,
Labeet was soon buying and registering cars in Wehner’s name.[2]
It turns out that Labeet used Wehner’s
stolen identity for more than registering cars. According to Miami-Dade police, “Between December 2005 and March
2006, Labeet bought nine guns, six assault rifles and three pistols” using
Wehner’s identity. And why did Labeet
go to the trouble of stealing Wehner’s identity to buy guns?
Because Labeet was wanted for aggravated
assault and battery—and had he tried to buy a gun from a dealer under his own
name, the background check system would have denied the purchase—and probably
alerted police where to look for Labeet.
Kevin Wehner knew he had a problem. His wallet was stolen while he was vacationing
in the U.S. Virgin Islands four years ago.
Labeet is from the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Labeet’s half-brother
Ishmael murdered eight people on a golf course in 1972. Wehner reported his stolen wallet at the
time, and he reported the theft of his identity in 2006, when he started
receiving notices concerning cars that he didn’t own.[3]
I have several reactions to this
story. The first is that Labeet’s use
of a stolen identity to buy guns tells us that the national firearms background
check system either works, or scares bad guys into believing that it
works. Otherwise, why bother to use a
stolen identity to buy guns?
My second thought is that if, as the gun
control advocates claim, criminals can easily buy guns at gun shows and from
private parties, why did Labeet go to the extra work and risk of buying guns
from a licensed dealer, using a stolen identity that might risk getting him
caught? This really does suggest that
Labeet considered purchasing guns from a dealer less risky than buying them
trhough the “gun show loophole” that we hear so much about.
My third thought: shouldn’t identity thefts
be reported to the national firearms background check system? Wehner had a clean records; that’s why
Labeet, using Wehner’s identity, didn’t get flagged when buying guns. Maybe it is time for the national background
check system to get identity theft reports as well. At least from reading over the background check system’s website,
I can see any evidence that identity thefts get reported to them.[4]
I agree that if Kevin Wehner had tried to
buy a gun from a licensed dealer after having reported the identity theft in
2006, it would have complicated matters for him. There might need to be some additional way of verifying that the
real Kevin Wehner was buying a gun—not the false Kevin Wehner. But it would have either slowed down, or
prevented Labeet from buying nine guns—including the AK-47 that Labeet used to
kill a Miami-Dade police officer. And
there’s a real chance that Labeet might have been arrested while trying to buy
one of those nine guns.
Shawn Labeet is dead—killed in a gunfight
with police some hours after he murdered officer Jose Somohano—who leaves
behind a wife and two small children.
This didn’t need to happen. I
would hope that all gun rights activists would agree that requiring police to
report identity thefts to the FBI’s national gun background check system is a
good idea.
Clayton E. Cramer is a software
engineer and historian. His sixth book, Armed America: The Remarkable Story
of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie (Nelson Current, 2007),
is available in bookstores. His web
site is http://www.claytoncramer.com.
[1] Robert Nolin, “Cops at risk as criminals use more assault weapons,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, September 16, 2007, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/or1gun16sep16,0,7697693.story?coll=or1_tab01_layout, last accessed September 20, 2007; Associated Press, “Officers are increasingly up against high-powered guns,” St. Petersburg [Florida] Times, September 15, 2007, http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/15/State/Officers_are_increasi_shtml, last accessed September 20, 2007.
[2] “Suspect in Miami Manhunt Killed In Shootout,” News 4 Jacksonville, September 14, 2007, http://www.news4jax.com/news/14114966/detail.html, last accessed September 20, 2007.
[3] Jamie Malernee and Brian Haas, “Gunman in killing of Miami-Dade police officer was shielded by stolen identity,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, September 15, 2007, http://www.sunsentinel.com/sflflblabeet0915pnsep15,0,6166078.story, last accessed September 20, 2007.
[4] FBI, “National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Information,” http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/nics/index.htm, last accessed September 20, 2007.