State senator scoffs at NYC mayor's gun show investigation

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran an undercover sting operation at gun shows in Tennessee and two other states to show how easy it is for criminals to buy weapons illegally.

It’s as simple as saying “this is a stickup,” even when the buyer admits he couldn’t pass a background check because of felony convictions or mental illness, Bloomberg told a news conference in New York Wednesday.

Tennessee state Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, scoffed at Bloomberg’s investigation, which covered seven gun shows in Ohio, Nevada and Tennessee, including the Tennessee Expo Center and Tennessee State Fairground shows.

“Even if you closed that so-called gun show loophole it would have no effect on crime,” said Jackson, an opponent of gun control and the main Senate sponsor of the state’s new guns-in-bars law. “All of these so-called rules and laws that Mayor Bloomberg and people like him want to place on society only affect law-abiding people. Criminals are obtaining the guns off the street. So Mayor Bloomberg is just grandstanding. All of this is a lot of bark and no bite. There s no substance to this issue.”

In  Bloomberg’s $1.5 million investigation, private investigators posed as illegal buyers, and hidden cameras filmed the gun purchases. The results have been sent to federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officials. Thirty-five of 47 gun sellers sold to people who said either they probably could not pass a background check or to apparent "straw purchasers”--accomplices posing as buyers to help the real buyer avoid a criminal background check.

Private unlicensed sellers are not required to run background checks using the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check system, but it’s a felony for them to sell guns to people who they have reason to believe are felons or mentally ill.

"The gun show loophole is a deadly serious problem - and this undercover operation exposes just how pervasive and serious it is," Bloomberg said. "We are sending a copy of our detailed report Gun Show Undercover to every member of the United States Congress. We'll encourage work with congressional leaders to pass legislation closing the gun show loophole. This is an issue that has nothing to do with the Second Amendment; it's about keeping guns from criminals, plain and simple."