More selective prosecution (or more accurately, NON-prosecution).
What's new?
Negro Don Lemon, a resident of Georgia, illegally buys AR15 in Colorado and remains both uncharged and unprosecuted at trial.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-OmIYDFkSc"]NBC's David Gregory Violates D.C. Gun Law on National TV? - YouTube[/ame]
Transcript from CNN:
LEMON: OK. And I told you last week that I have an ar-15. And the reason I have an ar-15 is during the Colorado theater shooting, I told you as well. I want to know what I’m talking about when it comes to how, you know — what this person did, if he went in, how long it took him to get a gun, and ar-15.
I went gun store until Aurora, Colorado. It took me longer to get the identification that I need to buy that gun than did for me to buy the gun, and the ammunition. It took me 20 minutes. And that’s what — that was over nervous chatter what do I do? I don’t know anything about this.
He’ll probably find a lot folks in agreement with that very last statement, especially since it looks like he may have illegally bought a gun by violating the Colorado gun laws listed below (and by extension, also federal laws).
If he still lives in Atlanta, Georgia where his bio says he’s based, then he violated Colorado gun laws. Those who may buy long guns are listed in statute as such:
12-27-101. Legislative declaration – nonresident.
(1) It is declared by the general assembly that it is lawful for a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or a licensed collector (licensed under the federal “Gun Control Act of 1968″) whose place of business is in this state to
sell or deliver a rifle or shotgun to a resident of a state contiguous to this state, subject to the following restrictions and requirements:…
12-27-103. Definitions. As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires: (1) “A state contiguous to this state” means any state having a common border with this state.
The ATF generally treats “contiguous states” as the lower 48, unless defined otherwise by the individual state, like Colorado specifically does by saying “common border”. In this case rather than limit just where Coloradans can buy (as per the ATF example), the state statute limits which residents of other states can or cannot buy long guns in Colorado.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s chart simplifies the law and cites Colorado long gun purchase laws as such:
COLORADO
Residents: May purchase long-guns only in Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska,
New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming 3,4Nonresidents: May purchase long-guns in this state only if they are a resident
of Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah
or Wyoming5,6Even if he’d just moved to Colorado, Colorado.gov says you have to reside in the state for 90 days to have residency (unless you own or operate a business or are employed in Colorado, which probably doesn’t apply if you live and work in Georgia). So he may be violating the law by buying a gun when he’s ineligible, even if he just moved to Colorado and got a driver’s license.
Goes to show once again that we have plenty of gun laws. We just need to start enforcing them against criminals, rather than going after law abiding citizens with more laws that criminals and madmen certainly will never follow and will never be effected by. There may now be two very public examples that could be used to show why you shouldn’t violate gun laws.