joelrosenberg ([info]joelrosenberg) wrote,
@ 2005-06-25 08:19:00
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It looks like the last one is almost gone.
Thursday, Mark Koscielski lost his last-but-one appeal before the Minneapolis City Council, and he's been ordered to stop selling guns by July 1

And so, the streets will now be safer?

Well, no.  Understandably, with the city of Minneapolis having gone to great trouble, over many years, to put him out of business, he's more than a little irritated, and fed up.  Word is that he's so irritated that he's going to take advantage of some subtlties in the law.  Here's one:  once he surrenders his Federal Firearms License on July 1, he'll no longer be required to -- or able to -- do a NICs check on purchases.  He can't support himself by the sale of guns after that, of course, but there's no law I'm aware of that will prohibit him from liquidating what will have been his stock in trade, but which will, upon surrender of his FFL, become his collection. 

I'm sure he'll keep a couple, for personal use, but he'll have hundreds and hundreds of guns to dispose of, and in Minnesota, private sales are legal. I think you can expect that Mark will go to more trouble than required by law to check out purchases -- he'll look at a drivers license to see if whoever wants to buy one is over 21 -- but he simply won't be able to do a background check, to see if the purchaser is a convicted felon.

And the streets will now be safer, right? 

Nah.



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Caveat ATF
[info]mn_mobocracy
2005-06-25 03:15 pm UTC (link)
IANAL, but aren't FFLs prohibited from doing transfers to themselves? I believe C&R FFLs are allowed to do that, but they can't resell to others.

While a cash sale for a quality weapon sounds like a good idea, it'd be nice to know that once his FFL expires, the weapons held under his FFL do legally transfer to him personally. Does he have a legal opinion from ATF that when he surrenders his FFL that weapons carried on his book actually get mass-transferred to him personally?

It'd be a real problem to buy a gun from him in good faith and then later find out, perhaps under difficult circumstances, that you're in possession of an illegally transferred firearm.

I hope he's made whatever arrangements are necessary to get his class 3 stuff tranferred to him personally or transferred to another friendly class 3, like Roger.

Disclaimer: I'm not impugning Mark's character or willingness to follow the law; it's just that we all know that ATF makes firearms law as obfuscated as possible and isn't kind to people who make mistakes.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: Caveat ATF
[info]joelrosenberg
2005-06-25 03:21 pm UTC (link)
I don't know the details, but I'm sure he's following the letter of the law. Generally, as I understand it, when an FFL holder gives up his FFL, all of his listed firearms are automatically transferred to his private collection, but I could be wrong.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Caveat ATF
[info]mn_mobocracy
2005-06-25 03:33 pm UTC (link)
It sounds like the fair thing to do relative to property ownership, but I just thought I'd raise the question since an unintentional Federal gun charge would ruin pretty much anyone's day.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: Caveat ATF
[info]exoticmatter
2005-06-26 04:46 am UTC (link)
It depends on whether or not he's a class 3 dealer and has post '86 weapons. Of this I am sure: LEO weapons must be sent to a class 3 dealer in the event of a lapse in your license. The pre-'86 stuff can remain in a personal collection, so long as there is no cause to believe the FFL was purchased to simply acquire a number of no-tax paid full auto weapons.

Bartleby

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[info]hockeyfag
2005-06-25 05:18 pm UTC (link)
its so sad to hear he lost. :( He's a nice guy. I'll have to swing by this week and see how he's doing and maybe help him liquidate some of his guns :(

(Reply to this)

Web Address?
[info]jrdave
2005-06-25 11:39 pm UTC (link)
I went down today a purchased a new handgun. Hopes it helps a little.

(Reply to this)


[info]trebor1415
2005-06-26 04:37 am UTC (link)
Is this the shop that's a few doors down from Uncle Hugo's? I was in Minneapolois for the first time recently and stopped by after my trip to the bookstore.

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[info]joelrosenberg
2005-06-26 12:33 pm UTC (link)
Yup; that's the place. It's also where I do the classroom portions of my carry classes.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]davidrn
2005-06-27 01:04 am UTC (link)
Man, I didn't know his shop was there. I could jump over from work in about 45 seconds, seeing as I work at Abbott.

(Reply to this)


[info]ego_archive
2005-06-28 05:13 pm UTC (link)
Between this and FAC going out of business, my 2 favorite shops just disappeared. Mark has always been a great guy when I go there.

Not a happy day for Minneapolis gun buyers.

(Reply to this)

I will keep fighting
[info]lastgunshop
2005-06-30 01:01 pm UTC (link)
I will not be selling firearms for the time being but will be selling everything else. Please come on down and visit us. We will be selling knives and when you buy one you get a Free box of Ammo. Barb and Mark wish to Thank all of you for your support....

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: I will keep fighting
[info]joelrosenberg
2005-06-30 11:19 pm UTC (link)
I'll be buying knives there. And there are quite a few knife hobbyists locally. I'm fond of World of Knives out in Hopkins, but Minneapolis could certainly use a good knife shop. I've been thinking about a new Benchmade...

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