[sculker]

Gun dealer backs out of NYC trial over gun sales

By TOM HAYS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NEW YORK -- A Georgia gun dealer accused in a federal lawsuit of selling weapons that ended up in the hands of New York City criminals has opted not to go to trial this week.

A lawyer for Jay Wallace, the owner of Adventure Sports Inc. in Smyrna, Ga., said in court papers Monday that his client decided that a trial would be a waste of time and money. He also claimed that pretrial rulings against the defendant showed he couldn't get a fair trial.

Opening arguments had been set for Tuesday in Brooklyn. City attorneys said that instead of a trial verdict, the judge entered a default judgment against Adventure Sports, which can be challenged in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Adventure Sports, "a small retail dealer with limited resources," has "chosen not to engage in the futile exercise of defending itself at a bench trial, and to appeal any default judgment that may be entered against it," wrote the defense attorney, John Renzulli.

In a statement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the development "an important victory for New Yorkers - as good as a win at trial - and a validation of our innovative efforts to hold gun dealers accountable for following federal laws."

City officials said they would ask the court to impose outside oversight of Adventure Sports' sales when the final details of the judgment are worked out at a later date.

Adventure Sports was one of 27 out-of-state gun shop owners accused by the city in 2006 suit of selling weapons to people who peddled them to criminals. While most of the shops settled by agreeing to track sales more closely, Wallace rejected the deal and initially decided to go to trial.

Authorities say they traced 21 illegal guns recovered in the city between 1996 and 2000 to Adventure Sports. To make their case, the city also sent undercover buyers with hidden video cameras to Wallace's shop and others to make simulated "straw purchases" in which one person submits to a background check for a gun for someone else.

Wallace has called the case "ridiculous," and filed a $400 million countersuit accusing the mayor of libel.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_gun_trial.html

[G21.45]

Yup, down goes another one of America's small gun shop owners! I was afraid this was going to happen - AGAIN.

Mayor Bloomberg and his henchmen, also, corralled a local gun dealer, here, in the Poconos. I've read Bloomberg's terms-of-settlement. It really is to any gun dealer's advantage to back out of the fight, and accept the Mayor's carefully contrived settlement. (You'd be more of a fool, and less of a businessman not to!)

As a matter of fact, I'd say this whole bizarre (and highly invasive) 'straw sale switcheroo' is deliberately intended to compel any local gun dealer who becomes caught in this out-of-state sponsored scam to: cave in, capitulate, and appear to be guilty in order to get rid of a bogus case that - in a saner, more morally inclined, and less politically motivated world - would never have been brought.

Let me ask: Regardless of what business a man might be in, does it seem right to you that paid employees (and informers) of one state should be allowed to enter into another state in order to bait and entrap local businessmen? I have to wonder how his honor, the mayor, and whomever's keeping his pants up and running the rest of New York state, right now, would react if the states of Georgia or Pennsylvania tried to pull a political media stunt like this inside of New York's political and judicial boundaries?

Probably not too cool, huh! I, still, remember when I bought a lemon from a New York state car dealer. The fact that I was an out-of-state buyer gave that guy a free pass to screw me over. Sure could have used some tricky legal aid from a big name politician on that one! (But, it didn't happen)

Too bad nobody has been able to afford the money and demand a change of venue on Mayor Bloomberg's fancy, 'bait 'n switch' gun scheme. The way I see things, the big winner, here, is actually New York City's billionaire mayor - himself. The New York lawyers who are running this slick, politically-correct gun purchase scam know, full well, that the terms-of-settlement (and the judicial coercion applied by the city's court system) are just: too coercive, too sensible, and too generous for any sane small businessman to ignore.

As far as I'm concerned, Mayor Bloomberg has one sweet city-funded publicity campaign going for himself, here. As long as other states like Pennsylvania and Georgia continue to allow New York City's agents to cross their borders and to insinuate themselves into local businesses while pretending to be typical customers, well then, small gun shop owners really have no choice. The slightest technical infraction from among the volumes of federal firearms laws will get a small gun shop owner served!

Personally, I see things getting worse before there's any chance of improvement. Out-of-state agents will continue to entrap; NYC will continue to serve papers on unsuspecting gun shop owners; the news media will continue to besmirch the victims; and, smooth and very well funded politicians like Michael Bloomberg will continue to be politically-correct men of the hour!

The way things are setup, right now, it's win/win for Mayor Bloomberg, and lose/lose for small gun shop owners all over the east coast, as well as lose/lose for all of America's gun owners everywhere.

[ScottG]

Wouldn't it be nice if the governor of the state the gun shops were in publicly told Mayor Bloomberg that if he set foot in the state he would immediately be arrested?

[DogRanger]

Originally Posted by ScottG

Wouldn't it be nice if the governor of the state the gun shops were in publicly told Mayor Bloomberg that if he set foot in the state he would immediately be arrested?

+1, you got that right.

[bkt]

Bloomie is (or was, at least) under investigation by the Feds precisely because he conducted an out-of-state sting operation that he was not legally permitted to conduct. We'll see where that goes.

[ScottG]

Originally Posted by bkt

Bloomie is (or was, at least) under investigation by the Feds precisely because he conducted an out-of-state sting operation that he was not legally permitted to conduct. We'll see where that goes.

Nowhere...