Have gun, will broadcast

By Geov Parrish. KEXP, Eat the State

Bonneville's KSL.com in Salt Lake City - the same fine, moral, LDS-owned folks who yanked Sean Hannity because he didn't meet the upstanding corporate code of the company (which also owns Seattle's KIRO-FM and KTTH) - is in trouble for, well, not being very moral. At least, not according to the New York Daily News.

The Mormon Church in Salt Lake City owns one of the most active and unregulated gun sale portals on the web, according to a new report.

An undercover investigation released in December by Mayor Bloomberg's office named KSL.com the third most active gun listings site on the Internet.
The online hub came under scrutiny Monday when the news website Buzzfeed revealed Deseret Media Companies, the for-profit arm of the Mormon Church, operates it.

The mayor's report said the site where 1,327 handguns and 1,003 rifles were listed for sale Monday allows buyers and sellers to complete a gun sale without identifying themselves.

What's the problem with this? Well, legally speaking, nothing: Internet gun sales, along with gun shows, are one of the many NRA-inspired loopholes through which drug dealers, felons, mental cases, and other ne'er-do-wells who couldn't pass a background check can get still their firearms - whether cheap handguns or semi-automatics - without needing to bother with one.

If a law enforcement agency wanted to try starting to trace the firearms sold through KSL.com, undoubtedly they'd find that some of those guns were bought by people not legally permitted to have them. Agents from Bloomberg's office showed how easy it would be: "Undercover agents performed integrity checks on [KSL.com], trying to buy guns while declaring openly that they could not pass a legit background check."

In eight of 12 attempts, the seller happily sold the gun to the shady buyer.

Of course, there are plenty of companies out there that make perfectly legal money doing morally dubious things. Most of the Fortune 500, for example. But Bonneville - the parent company of Deseret Media - has a couple of very particular questions to answer about this debacle:

1) What the hell is a TV/radio web site (the Bonneville equivalent in Seattle is mynorthwest.com) doing operating one of the nation's biggest, and apparently shadiest, online gun bazaars? (Though to be sure, if advertising guns directly on air were legal, the potential for personal testimonials by the air talent is nearly unlimited.)

2) What the hell happened to Deseret Media Company's mission- the one that got Hannity dumped - to "be trusted voices of light and knowledge reaching hundreds of millions of people worldwide"? Which of its corresponding "values" are being upheld by selling truckloads of guns to thugs?

Is it the part about promoting "integrity, civility, morality, and respect for all people"?

Or maybe it's seeking "to instill light and knowledge (or at least a muzzle flash, and powder burns) in my work"?

Ah! Found it! It's covered in Deseret's statement under "Improve Lives," the bit about "to lift, inspire, and help others find enduring happiness." Happiness, after all, is a warm gun.

Whoops. My bad. The real Bonneville value reflected by running guns - and, for that matter, broadcasting Glenn Beck and Dori Monson - is right at the top of its values statements: "I honor principles espoused by our owner in the products and services I provide."

Principles like, for example, "anything for a warm buck."

Comments

[MW]

thats how the mormon's execute em in Utah, by gun and also their ownerhip of casino's and avoiding caffine but drink it anyway just make them so holey.

[sparky]

An interesting sub-culture.

[[email protected]]

It's not a "sub culture", it is our right, as endowed by our creator (I'm agnostic so STFU). As far as selling personal property in a classified section, that is not a "loop hole", it is personal property. Not to many years ago you would find such ad's in any print newspaper. As usual more moonbat bullshit from the left.

[Pete]

The federal and many state governments have laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons, the mentally ill, and a few other categories. Reputable gun shops and dealers require background checks to conform to these laws. Gun shows have become notorious as a way to circumvent these laws. Online sales like these are another way for criminals to get guns "legally." And as the article says, in 2/3 of the agents' trial sales, when they told the seller they couldn't buy a gun legally, the dealer sold it to them anyway.

In other words, it's a loophole. Not only that, but it's apparently a common conduit for sales both parties know are illegal. And only someone who thinks everyone has the right to own a gun - rapists, murderers, drug thugs, crazies, and small children included - would try to spin it otherwise.

[Pete]

Oh, and "rights endowed by their creator" is a line from the Declaration of Independence, which says nothing about gun ownership - that's in the Bill of Rights. If you're going to cite irrelevant founding documents - laws barring certain classes of people from gun ownership have repeatedly been found constitutional - at least cite the right one.

[Clark Magnuson]

German president Gustav Heinemann: "A state is only as free as his weapon law."

[[email protected]]

Hey Pete I know the difference between the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We are a nation of Laws not men. I don't need your permission to sell my property to whom ever I choose. So get your filthy hands off my rights.

[sparky]

Uh..right jk....except I was referring to the sub-culture of Mormonism that isn't often seen by the general public. Not guns.

[Pete]

JK: It's not my permission you need. It's the state's, and it's completely within the state's rights to make possession of guns by certain classes of people illegal. You can have all the alcohol you want, but you don't have the "right" to sell beer to a minor. Same thing. It has nothing to do with property rights, and everything to do with an illegal transaction.

Yeah, we're a nation of laws - so how come you're advocating breaking them?

[asdfasdf]

for craps sake, when you buy a gun over the internet you still have to go thru an FFL and NICS check (FBI background chek).

What complete hogwash from the OP, whom I once spoke to on the phone and complimented for his similarity to pro-2nd-Amendment lib Alex Cockburn. He assured me thet like Cockburn, he was entirely pro-gun-rights.

[The Alpha]

Empirical data proves what most of us already surmised:

Conservativism may be the refuge of the dim. But the room for rightwing ideas is made by those too timid to properly object

Oh let's all be friends. Let's all be nice. That's going to save our country. If you're on social security, medicare and have an inheritance. The rest of you - enjoy poverty. When did old people become part of the problem instead part of the solution?

I wonder if it was nice people who started the French Revolution?

[gun toting economist on drugs]

Reputable gun shops and dealers require background checks to conform to these laws. Gun shows have become notorious as a way to circumvent these laws. Online sales like these are another way...

Utter crap and nonsense. If you're an FFL (federal firearms license) dealer you have to run a NICS check to sell a gun. This constitutes the vast majority of sales. There's nothing 'notorious' about it.

If you're a private seller, in states where that is legal (such as WA) you don't.

Clearly, you've got an eloquent writing style. Now get some facts to go along with it.

[garvey price gun]

Have Gun Will Travel radio show broadcast 106 episodes on CBS between November 23, 1958, and November 22, 1960. During the fifties, many radio programs made the transition to the ever-growing medium called television. Some more successful than others. John Dehner was cast as Paladin. Dehner was the same man who many years before, originally didn't want to play Matt Dillon because he didn't want to be typecast in a western.