Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Bad Guys Circumvent Tough Gun Laws Via Rent-a-Gun Schemes

The ingenuity here is impressive. If only it could be rechanneled into something more positive:
While the shotgun used in the 2009 Beer Store robbery was rented for $200 and would likely sell for $600 to $800, handguns, easier to conceal, typically sell and rent for more. 
An economy brand Hi-Point 9-mm sells for around $1,500 on the street while the rarer but coveted .50-calibre Desert Eagle — which comes in a gold finish — can sell for $3,000 or even as much as $6,000. 
In another gun-renting case, a Toronto man charged $600 per night for a handgun. 
In August 2006, undercover officers met crack dealer Marvin Washington at a jerk chicken restaurant on Finch Ave. The officers said they wanted a gun and Washington said he had a source. He made a call, then told the officers to drive to the Jane St. address of Joel Thomas. Thomas got in the undercovers’ car, showed a loaded 9-mm Helwan handgun and exchanged the rental for cash.  
“(Thomas) wanted to utilize what’s known as a community firearm that allows customers to rent the firearm over a weekend or week to do whatever they wanted to do with it and then they had to return it,” one of the officers who investigated the case told the Star. 
After accounting for pretrial custody, a judge sentenced Washington to four months in jail and Thomas to 11 months.
They met a crack dealer named Marvin Washington at a jerk chicken restaurant?!? In the annals of perfect stereotyping that ranks right up there with a Mafia kingpin getting whacked at a spaghetti house.

No comments: