Alphecca

Gun Runner Stories

Yesterday, the Buffalo News ran a series of stories about a man, James Nigel Bostic, who bought over 250 guns at Ohio gun shows and sold them off to thugs, gang-bangers, etc. in New York. Here are quotes from one of the stories:
About Bostic:

...If only Bostic had lived his dream, perhaps Williams would have gotten a shot at his.

But it wasn't to be.

Instead, Bostic became a local symbol of everything wrong with the nation's handgun laws.

Williams became a symbol of gun violence. A bullet from one of Bostic's guns ripped through Bud's stomach while the teenager was shooting baskets near his home one night.

[...]

Bostic didn't pull the trigger that night in August 2003 when the 9mm bullet tore a hole through Bud's insides and his dreams.

Bostic never pulls the trigger. That's not how he kills or maims people, or destroys their lives.

But Bud still was one of Bostic's victims.

So was Armod Law. And Christopher Leftwich. And Larry Sommerville, even though Sommerville killed himself.

They were all Bostic's victims. And there are more. Many more.

Bostic put enough weapons on Buffalo's streets during 2000 to arm a company of military police: Roughly 250 handguns. Forty-five caliber pistols designed to knock down the strongest men. Nine-millimeter Hi-Points, light and easily concealed.

But he didn't give these weapons to military police. Bostic put his arsenal in the hands of doped up teenagers, petty thieves and hard core drug dealers. Anyone who wanted a cheap handgun for whatever reason - protection, status, to settle a grudge.

Bostic, now 34, carried out the biggest illegal gun trafficking scheme ever uncovered in Western New York, The News found, by taking advantage of loopholes in the nation's gun laws and limitations on federal law enforcement. And he was helped by powerful gun rights lobbies that undermined the enforcers.

Bostic also benefited, The News found, from hatching his scheme in the gun-friendly state of Ohio - where he and three girlfriends roamed through gun shows, seeking weapons dealers willing to turn a blind eye to make a buck.

[...]

If Bostic had been in New York, with its tough handgun laws, his scheme would have failed, authorities say. New York requires an extensive background check and waiting period for a required pistol permit.

In fact, given his criminal record - he had 17 aliases, two Social Security numbers and 23 prior arrests with 11 convictions - it's unlikely Bostic could legally own even one handgun in New York State.

But he was in Ohio, where buying box loads of handguns was easier than getting a credit card.

In that gun-friendly state, there are no licenses or waiting periods required to buy handguns.

There are no limits on the number of guns that can be bought at one time and no background investigation beyond a routine criminal check to weed out convicted felons. Despite his many troubles with the law, Bostic had not been convicted of a felony at the time.

So Bostic and his three girlfriends in 2000 traipsed into the welcoming world of Ohio gun shows. They easily bought about 250 handguns.

Bostic bought some of the guns, but most were in his girlfriends' names. The majority were 9mm Hi-Points selling for $89. Some were .40 and .45 caliber guns, costing a little more. All were purchased from two gun dealers on the pretext that Bostic would one day open a gun shop.

The dealers went along with Bostic's story.

[...]

By the time Bud was shot, Bostic's gun scheme was three years old and he was already charged with gun running.

Authorities became suspicious shortly after the Hi-Points first appeared up on the streets.

"The police were finding them on people who used them in homicides," Scherie Smith said. "He (Bostic) told me something might happen."

In addition, red flags went up at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when the agency was notified of the guns Bostic and the women bought in Ohio. Under federal law, dealers must inform the ATF when anyone purchases more than two guns in a five-day period.

"We knew something was amiss," ATF agent Robert Wilson said.

Bostic thought he could insulate himself by reporting the weapons stolen.

His strategy boomeranged.

He had used his girlfriends as straw buyers to distance himself from many of the purchases, but now, with his name on a burglary report, Bostic was linked to most of the guns.

In August 2002, Bostic was arrested. In 2004, he was sentenced to seven years in federal prison.

Aside from all the anti-gun rhetoric in the stories, I find several points disturbing. How could those dealers have believed that Bostic was really going to get an FFL and open a gun store and that these weren't straw-purchases? Why did it take them three years to report the multiple handgun purchases? (As a side note, at one gun show about ten years ago the dealer specifically had to state how many guns I was purchasing when he phoned the NICS (I was buying two).) And if the multiple purchases were reported right away, why did it take the ATF three years to pay attention? For that matter, with 11 convictions -- even if for non-felony offenses -- why was Bostic still on the street?

You can read some of the other stories here and here and here.

You're thoughts on all this, please. A report like this can be very damaging to "our side" in resisting gun control, such as "one gun per-month" or the so-called "gun-show loophole". I wonder, though, what was left out of these stories...

Posted by Jeff Soyer at June 13, 2005 07:34 AM