This time from the Boston Globe:
Showing up at the State Line Gun Shop in Mason, N.H., Markoff presented an ID that wouldn’t pass muster at a campus dive bar. The blond Markoff showed an old New York driver’s license belonging to Andrew H. Miller, who is dark-haired and heavier.
Except here is a picture of the two licenses. I wouldn’t necessarily say they are identical, but there is a resemblance. We could always try some laws like making it unlawful to present a fake ID, or impose penalties for making false statements to authorities. That will surely put a stop to incidents like this.
He also presented the same ID to a state official who gave him an official document attesting to his residency.
A parallel would be a bartender serving someone after a cop had looked at the same ID and pronounced it good.
Let’s see: Markoff could use the affidavit–that was required for him to get a driver’s license–to get a New Hampshire driver’s license, which he could then use to get the gun.
Yeah, more regulation would certainly have prevented Markoff from getting a gun!
Yeah, looking at those pictures, I can’t say I’d think that ID was “not his”.
The hairline’s about the same (as is the haircut), shape of the face is about the same, skin tone and eyebrows are close (closer than some honest and true ID pictures I’ve seen for my friends), build – as far as we can see – is close.
Unless college dive bars have mindreaders or something I don’t know how they’d assume that was not his ID, myself.
So the Nashua clerks office made the same “mistake” the gun dealer did. Why isn’t the family angry at them too?
Looks pretty close to me.
Ban hairdye. It has no sporting use.
Mommy of course blames the gun shop for destroying her family, and not the man who murdered her daughter, of course the man who murdered her daughter is dead and the gun shop has much deeper pockets.
I thought the pictures were close enough, but the Stateline Gun shop failed to perform due diligence. The reason, they didn’t think he’d kill someone so quickly in such a spectacular way and make such a bang of a story.
What Matthew said is wrong. They sent him to get that other document to cover their ass, not to get to the bottom of anything. Gun sellers have to be more careful than that and if they’re not they should pay in civil court in addition, of course, to losing their license.
What I can’t understand is how hard you guys try to justify this shabby bullshit. You should be the first to demand that FFL guys be completely clean. Couldn’t any one of you produce several pieces of ID as well as phone bills and other documents of proof of residence? There’s no need for something like this to ever slip through the cracks, unless the gun shop just doesn’t give a damn.
Mike, go crap in your own unread blog, no here is listening to your retarded bleating, keep your masturbatory posting to yourself….. Oh yeah and come back to the USA before you complain about our gun laws…….
Mike302000, how the heck can you claim that the gun shop should have practiced due diligence, while ignoring the State’s role in that very same due diligence?
Is it really all that unjustified to say to someone, “I’m not confident that you’re a resident: you’ll have to show me proof!” and then when that person comes back with proof, to follow through with the transaction?
Or should we suspect every person who doesn’t have their documents is perfect order to be the most vile of murderers, who shouldn’t be allowed so much as a library card?
Alpheus, I’m not ignoring the city hall or whoever it was that issued that affadavit. But it was the gun shop that handed over the gun. The primary responsibility is theirs.
“should we suspect every person who doesn’t have their documents is perfect order?” Yes, absolutely, not necessarily “to be the most vile of murderers” but to be something less than on the up-and-up. Legitimate people have no trouble showing enough documentation to make it totally clear. Thosw who can’t need to be looked at with suspicion.
All that is if you want to do something about guns ending up in the wrong hands.
I do not use the reference to library cards lightly: I have personally gone to get a library card, learned I didn’t have the sufficient documentation to get one, and then came back with the needed documentation.
Why should getting a gun be any different? Just because you don’t fully understand documentation rules, doesn’t mean that you are a murderer just itching to kill people.