Washington State Patrol Shows ATF How Its Done

[CSM Kersh]

And sends letter to gun dealers asking for a list of AR sales and the buyers.  This is something ATF has tried off and on for over 20 years only to have their hands slapped in court evert time they tried to amass a list of gun owners.

WSP jars gun dealers, sets off firestorm, ATF ‘not consulted’

A detective with the Washington State Patrol ignited a firestorm yesterday when licensed gundealers across the Evergreen State received a letter asking for documents listing sales of any AR15 rifle over the past nine months, along with the names and personal information of people who bought those guns.


http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/wsp-jars-gun-dealers-sets-off-firestorm-atf-not-consulted

[dogmush]

Wait three weeks, then drop a FOIA request on the responses.

Would be interesting to know which dealers gave up names and which told WSP where to stick it.

[Levant]

I see the Sam and Dave show is still in production after my long absence.

But, on the subject of the article, I can't help but wonder if Ms. Gundermann's investigation is her attempt to recover her own lost weapon.

[CSM Kersh]

Ahhh, there was more to the story than WSP first let out.  They "misplaced" and AR15 and was trying to "quietly" find it. 

The Washington State Patrol has issued a mea culpa letter that acknowledges the agency “clearly caused concern” among Evergreen State firearms dealers over a request that they provide names, addresses and other information about every AR-15 sale since last July 1.

   The letter (see complete text below) comes after more than 200 messages flooded the voice mailbox of a WSP detective who was working on the case of a missing AR-15 rifle that – as this column suggested here – was a WSP-owned rifle. The WSP letter has been reproduced on the Seattleguns.net forum here.

The rest of the story is here

[CSM Kersh]

And now the WSP start trying to BS their way out of the bad press....

UPDATE: WSP insists no gun registry intended; no specific suspect in gun loss

 

   Washington State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins admitted today that the agency has plenty of egg on its face over the letter one of its detectives sent to every firearms dealer in the state, which set off a furor that has yet to cool down, as the Seattle Times and Daily Olympian report today.

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/update-wsp-insists-no-gun-registry-intended-no-specific-suspect-gun-loss

[RevDisk]

I actually feel sorry for Detective Juli Gundermann, who sent out the letter.  It's one thing to screw up.  It's another to suddenly end up on probably every newspaper, TV spot and Congresscritter's attention in about, oh, 30 minutes.  With thousands of very angry voters, backed up by multiple political organizations with lengthy experience of annoying and defeating much larger, better funded organizations.   On a political hot potato item.  That enjoys Constitutional protection.   

Short of punting a newborn infant for a field goal at the Superbowl, I'm not thinking of a way to screw up worse.  The Detective could have burned a few houses to the ground with tear gas grenades with the family pets inside and gotten off lighter, attention wise. 

[gordoat]

To protect and serve.