Virginia Gun Seller Adopts Strict Rules Retail Giant UsesNew York City has a new weapon in its fight to stem the flow of illegal guns into the city: the Wal-Mart code.
On Monday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to announce a deal with the lone retailer that had continued battling a landmark lawsuit the city filed against a group of out-of-state gun dealers in 2006.
In an out-of-court settlement, the former holdout, Bob Moates Sport Shop, Midlothian, Va., agreed to tougher rules for selling guns, according to a copy of the agreement reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The new rules are based directly on stricter standards Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest gun seller, adopted earlier this year in a voluntarily agreement with a gun-control group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Wal-Mart wasn't involved in the New York City lawsuit, but its gun-sales practices had come under scrutiny in recent years.
In 2006, New York City sued 27 mostly small gun retailers in Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, claiming their illegal gun sales and lax screening practices created a public nuisance in the city. Twenty of the 27 original defendants settled the case, giving a city-appointed monitor complete access to their stores for at least three years.
Three other retailers declined to defend themselves, making it likely the court will force them into a similar settlement. A judge dismissed the city's allegations against another three of the retailers named in the suit.
That left Bob Moates as the only active defendant in the case. But in a settlement Wednesday with New York City, the retailer agreed, among other things, to make and store video of gun purchases and keep an internal log of any gun it sells that is later used in a crime.
Before filing their 2006 lawsuits in federal court in Brooklyn, New York officials arranged sting operations conducted by private investigation firm James Mintz Group. The investigation concluded that many stores showed a willingness to participate in illegal straw purchases, in which one person buys a gun for another person who is legally barred from buying guns.
In a bid to stamp out that problem and come up with other "responsible" firearm sales practices, New York City's criminal justice coordinator, John Feinblatt, and other officials flew to Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, late last year, to consult with the chain's former head of compliance.
[Richard Hill, of Bob Moates Sport Shop, displays a .45 caliber pistol. The retailer has adopted stricter rules on gun sales.] Associated Press
Richard Hill, of Bob Moates Sport Shop, displays a .45 caliber pistol. The retailer has adopted stricter rules on gun sales.
In April, the discount chain became the first, and so far the only, gun retailer to voluntarily join a 10-point code known as the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership, which was created by Bloomberg administration officials and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a two-year-old coalition.
Among other things, Wal-Mart agreed to keep video surveillance tape of gun sales longer than the customary six months or less in the event that the tape could be helpful in tracking down a gun and owner involved in a crime. It also agreed to accept only valid federal- or state-issued picture IDs as primary identification for firearms purchases.
About four of the 10 reforms Wal-Mart agreed to -- including a computerized log of any of its guns traced to crimes -- haven't been implemented yet because they are "still in development" with the mayors' group,according to Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar.
Wal-Mart currently sells guns in about 1,180 of its U.S. stores.
Mayor Bloomberg's legal campaign illustrates some of the growing legal and economic pressures on the nation's gun retailers, whose numbers already have dwindled sharply. Today, there are about 48,600 federally licensed "type one" firearms dealers. At their peak in the early 1990s, there were 248,155 such dealers, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
So far, no other city has replicated New York's legal assault on out-of-state retailers whose guns have been used in urban crimes, but gun-control advocates and big-city officials are paying close attention to what, if any, results come from the tougher gun-sales practices the suit encouraged.
The Bob Moates settlement is the first that city officials have linked to the Wal-Mart deal. The retailer agreed to post signs at its stores that say "Follow the Law, Don't Be a Straw!" and to use an employee training program that is "based on Wal-Mart's training program," the settlement document says.
From February 1994 though June 2002, at least 22 guns sold by Moates in Virginia were recovered by New York City in connection with violent crimes, according to the New York City lawsuit. They included several recovered within 18 months of their sales.
In 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $14.5 million to settle charges by the California attorney general that it committed "thousands of violations" of state gun-safety laws at five stores, including delivering firearms to 36 prohibited buyers through "straw purchases" carried out by relatives or friends.
Mr. Tovar of Wal-Mart said these were mostly "record-keeping issues." In 2006, Wal-Mart decided to stop selling shotguns and rifles in about a third of its U.S. stores in what it calls a marketing decision based on lack of demand in some places. And in 1994, it discontinued sales of handguns at all of its stores, except for special orders in Alaska.
By: Vanessa O'Connell
Wall Street Journal; September 23, 2008
