[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 85 (Thursday, June 29, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6106-S6107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         GUN TRAFFICKING REPORT

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, last week the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco 
and Firearms (ATF) released a new report about the illegal firearms 
market. The ATF's report documents 1,530 criminal investigations 
involving firearms traffickers for the time period between July 1996 
and December 1998. These trafficking investigations led to the recovery 
of more than 84,000 illegal firearms and the prosecution of more than 
1,700 defendants.
  The ATF report provides significant insight in to the gun trafficking 
trade. The investigation reveals that too many loopholes in our 
national framework for firearms distribution permits traffickers to 
divert legal guns to the illegal marketplace. The vulnerabilities in 
our law, identified by the ATF, are a result of corrupt federal 
firearms licensees, who were associated with only 10 percent of the 
investigations in the report but accounted for nearly half of the 
firearms involved, a staggering 40,000 guns; gun shows, which supplied 
channels for 26,000 guns, the second highest number of illegally 
trafficked firearms in the investigation; straw purchasers, who bought 
and transferred firearms to unlicensed sellers or prohibited users; 
unlicensed sellers, who were not required to conduct Brady background 
checks or maintain records of their sales; and firearms theft.
  Mr. President, we can no longer afford to ignore the deficiencies in 
our federal firearm laws. Gun trafficking gives criminal users and 
young people access to tens of thousands of illegal guns. If Congress 
wants to reduce firearm trafficking, then first and foremost, we must 
close the gun show loophole. Secretary Lawrence Summers, who oversees 
the ATF explained ``This report . . . shows that we must do more to 
close every trafficking channel, starting with closing the gun show 
loophole . . .'' Furthermore, we must increase criminal penalties for 
traffickers and crack down on corrupt federal firearms licensees, straw 
purchasers, and unlicensed sellers. I urge Congress to pay attention to 
this report and pass sensible gun measures that will end the deadly 
flow of firearms to the illegal marketplace.
  I request an article be printed in the Record entitled ``The 
Biography of a Gun,'' which explains how a single gun makes the 
transition from legal to illegal commerce.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Apr. 9, 2000]

                   The Nation--The Biography of a Gun

                  (By Jayson Blair and Sarah Weissman)

       In America, more than 200,000 guns are traced by law 
     enforcement each year. This is the story of one of those 
     weapons--named after its serial number--No. 997126, a 12-
     shot, 9 millimeter Jennings semi-automatic.
       The gun, made mostly of plastic, was manufactured in 1995, 
     at a factory near John Wayne International Airport in Costa 
     Mesa, Calif. It is now wrapped in plastic, locked in a police 
     property clerk's office near the New York State Supreme Court 
     building in downtown Brooklyn. In between, the gun is 
     believed to have been used in at least 13 crimes--including 
     the murder of 2 people and the wounding of at least 3 others 
     in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
       The dead were a 16-year-old boy who was sitting on top of a 
     mailbox and a 48-year-old shopkeeper who was the father of 4 
     children. The injured were a man who got in the way during a 
     robbery, a Jehovah's Witness from Chicago who had moved to 
     Brooklyn to do volunteer work, and a rookie New York City 
     police officer.
       In New York, about 6 in 10 murder victims are killed with 
     firearms.
       No. 997126 is 6 inches long and weighs 16 ounces. It was 
     made at the Bryco Arms plant, where more than 200,000 
     inexpensive handguns are manufactured each year.

[[Page S6107]]

       Byrco is owned by Janice Jennings, the former daughter-in-
     law of George Jennings, who founded the first in what became 
     a cluster of Southern California gun manufacturers known 
     collectively as the Ring of Fire.
       From Byrco, the gun was shipped to B.L. Jennings, Inc., a 
     Carson City, Nev., distributor owned by George Jennings's son 
     and Janice's ex-husband, Bruce. No. 997126 was bought by Acua 
     Sport Corporation, a federally licensed wholesaler in 
     Bellefontaine, Ohio. Acua sold it, for about $90, to Classic 
     Pawn and Jewelry, Inc. in Chickamauga, Ga.
       In August 1998, Classic resold the gun to a Georgia woman 
     for about $150. Investigators believe that the woman was 
     buying the 9 millimeter gun as a straw purchaser on behalf of 
     Charles Chapman. He was prohibited by federal law, because of 
     a previous felony conviction, from purchasing firearms. 
     Investigators say they believe Mr. Chapman drove the firearm 
     to New York, where it was sold to a member of the Bloods 
     gang. And that is how, investigators say, the gun got to 
     Demeris Tolbert.
       The police say No. 997126 was recovered when Mr. Tolbert 
     was arrested on the roof of the Howard Houses after the 
     shooting of a New York police officer, Tanagiot Benekos, who 
     was looking for suspects in the killing of a pawnbroker 
     earlier that afternoon.
       Mr. Tolbert had been paroled the previous January after 
     serving three years of a nine year sentence for drug 
     possession. Prosecutors say that after the New York City 
     Police Department's ballistics laboratory linked the gun to 
     slugs recovered from the earlier shootings, Mr. Tolbert, 32, 
     of Brownville confessed.
       Investigators say he also took responsibility for a 1990 
     shooting of a clerk at an East New York bodega, the 1991 
     killing of a Crown Heights security guard, four other 
     shootings and an attempted murder.
       The Brooklyn District Attorney's office has charged him 
     with murder, attempted murder and attempted murder of a 
     police officer.
       The ballistic information and serial number were matched 
     against a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms database, 
     which prompted a federal gun-smuggling investigation. Special 
     Agent Edgar A. Domenech, who oversees the bureau's New York 
     and New Jersey division, said the A.T.F. traced the weapon 
     and 30 others to Charles Chapman. He is being held, along 
     with alleged accomplices, on charges of gun trafficking and 
     conspiracy to illegally purchase firearms and transport them 
     for sale to criminals in New York, where more stringent laws 
     bar the sort of wholesale purchases permitted in Georgia.
       Howard Safir, the New York City police commissioner, has 
     proposed tighter, uniform national licensing regulations, and 
     the annual registration of firearms to hold owners 
     accountable for the illegal sales of weapons they purchase.

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