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GAO generally fails in attempts to buy firearms on internet

by Jonn Lilyea••58

AW1Ed sends us a link to IJR which found a Government Accountability Office report on their attempts to purchase firearms on the internet. Apparently, Democrats Elijah Cummings, Brian Schatz and Elizabeth Warren asked the GAO to investigate the ease with which consumers can buy firearms on the internet. It didn’t go well for the gungrabbers. From the GAO report;

GAO agents attempted to purchase firearms from Dark Web and Surface Web marketplaces. Agents made seven attempts to purchase firearms on the Dark Web. In these attempts, agents did not disclose any information about whether they were prohibited from possessing a firearm. Of these seven attempts, two on a Dark Web marketplace were successful. Specifically, GAO agents purchased and received an AR-15 rifle and an Uzi that the seller said was modified so that it would fire automatically. GAO provided referral letters to applicable law-enforcement agencies for these purchases to inform any ongoing investigations.

Tests performed on the Surface Web demonstrated that private sellers GAO contacted on gun forums and other classified ads were unwilling to sell a firearm to an individual who appeared to be prohibited from possessing a firearm. Of the 72 attempts agents made to purchase firearms on the Surface Web, 56 sellers refused to complete a transaction: 29 sellers stated they would not ship a firearm and 27 refused after the disclosure of the undercover identities’ stated prohibited status. Furthermore, in 5 of these 72 attempts, the accounts GAO set up were frozen by the websites, which prevented the agents from using the forums and attempting to make a purchase.

They were able to buy two weapons on the “Dark Web”. The AR-15 they bought arrived with the serial numbers scratched off and the Uzi that had been advertised as Fully automatic, arrived as a semi-automatic weapon. I’m sure they were disappointed.

The GAO provided a helpful graphic to summarize the results of their “surface web” attempts;

So, basically, the GAO proved that which we’ve been saying all along – the internet doesn’t facilitate well the illegal purchase of firearms. Criminals aren’t arming themselves by buying guns from Gun Broker or Guns America websites, or even from private citizens. Americans don’t want to arm criminals, and this test by the GAO proves that.

I’ve bought guns on the internet and I had to go through FFL dealers and background checks each time. Just like the background checks when I bought guns at Gun Shows.

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58 thoughts on “GAO generally fails in attempts to buy firearms on internet”

  1. It’s too much to ask that these morons actually know anything about the subject of proposed legislation.

    1. Cummings never met a photoop or chance to virtue signal that he didn’t like. Set up some lights and wave a microphone in his general direction, and he’ll magically appear. I remember when he was an attorney, before the rarified air inside the beltway got him. He’s been sick recently, maybe it’s time to go back to lawyering or (gasp) retire.

    2. So fauxcahontas, the mooslime moron and the big schatz…can all go POUT AND THEN POUND SAND!!

  3. But they got TWO weapons out of it, one of them with the serial number filed off!

    That’s PROOF you can buy them online, isn’t it???? Isn’t it? Yes? No?? Maybe??? Well, maybe not…????

    Nope, it’s proof that the laws work the way they are supposed to.

    Still won’t make the gun grabbers happy. They’ll come up with something else.

    1. Since much if not the overwhelming majority of what goes on on the dark net is at best shady as hell – and at worst criminal, to include use by terrorists – it doesn’t surprise me at all that GAO was able to find a couple of persons there willing to sell them firearms illegally. It’s simply criminals doing what criminals do.

      2. unfortunately, there are several vying for the coveted title of “Dumbest Person in the House”. But Elijah Cumstain can rest assured that his only real competition is Nancy Belowsea.

        1. Ret, like the late unarmed, lamented, beloved Marion Barry, he certainly reflects the electorate that keeps him going back to the trough. Menckens comment about the sense of the American people proven.QED.

    2. If you think he’s dumb, think about the voters who keep electing him. It’s all about race. I have to live it everyday in Jefferson County/Pine Bluff, Arkansas where we have rocks in the yard smarter than some of our elected officials who are only reelected because of their race. A couple of years ago we actually had one guy outside the courthouse during early voting extolling people to vote for a Black president and Black mayor, don’t go back to the plantation. The Obama administration didn’t want to even hear about his violation of the Civil Rights Act by telling people to make a decision based on skin color.

    3. Cummings is in the hospital being treated for a knee infection from a previous surgery so lets all pray for a fast recovery /SARC

    5. The 2 rocket surgeons, Sheila Jackson Leigh and Frederica Wilson are the dumbest 12 members of Congress.
      They even have Sheila Jackson Tweet generators out there: https://tweeterino.com/TX18CongWOMAN/status/199144
      If Howdy Doody and Woody from Toy Story made a “womens wear” collection for Ru Paul and decorated by Richard Simmons and Liberace, it would look like the head coverings Wilson wears.

  5. All they had to do was make the short drive from DC to Wild Wonderful “By God” West Virginia and purchase a firearm.

    Since the Governor’s common sense was over-ridden by his constituent hillbillies, damn near every toddler in the state has an assault weapon.

    Its bad enough that hillbillies think the Constitution gives them a right to carry an Uzi into Biscuit World, with no restriction on ammunition purchases the entire state may explode because of the irrational hoarding of ammo.

    With the murder rate in WV skyrocketing from gun violence, surely the Feds could find a few guns to purchase.

    2. Goodness, Dave. How could I have missed that in the mass media!I’d have been entertained, seeing Tiffany Blowdried and Scott Lame breathlessly being VERY SERIOUS on a special report on nitwitness news. Posed in front of a double wide back in the hollers.All wide eyed, being away from the Big City and all.Banjo music in the background. I’d get a chance to black out muh front teeth, and hand them the serpent! Fun for the whole family!

        1. Yep. And they have a website, which you can use to find a location near you! (smile)

          Well, if you live in WV; a few towns in OH or KY; or Panama City, FL, you can find one near you. Otherwise, you’re out of luck.

    4. All these moronic anti gunners need to bury they heads in the sand! American gun owners are the largest army in the world! If and when this country is attacked, these lowlife scum will either be glad Americans are armed or else they will be where I suspect they will be..’ON THE OTHER SIDE”

  6. But the back alley peddlers in urban areas still sell firearms to anyone regardless as long as they have the cash, but proglodyte politicians still want to go after law-abiding people which makes as much sense as making car ownership difficult for everyone because of drunk drivers .

  7. Not surprised to see Fauxcahontas Warren’s name among the boobs behind this exercise in proving 2+2 does indeed equal 4. The woman is a lying idiot with a Clintonesque voice, and that is the nicest thing I can say about her. How much taxpayer money did they waste on this? Since they requested it, and are so concerned about the proper use of funds, they should immediately reimburse the costs plus interest.

      1. Ret, that’s why they have staff. Left to their own devices, they’d wander out into traffic. Or get distracted by shiny things.

    2. It’s been SO COLD lately that Elizabeth Warren has started claiming to be an Eskimo.

  8. Since there are well-documented cases of federal agents -selling- illicit arms to prohibited persons (for example “fast and furious” AKA “gun walker”), it is entirely possible that the dark web sellers cited were actually other feds.

    It has certainly happened in the past where a confidential informant sold out one set of feds/cops to another set. As the two sets collide, hijinks ensued.

    A lack of any action against the cited darkweb sellers would tend to suggest a dis-inclination to rock that particular boat, for some reason.

    And no, that is not paranoid rambling. I have had several personal acquaintances in law enforcement cite instances where they know personally of such hijinks, blue on blue sellouts by Wiley CIs. One shrewd fellow was paid by each side to set up the buy with the other, while simultaneously informing to a -third- set of LE of the pending buy, all for cash in advance. The CI was not prosecuted, due to the sheer embarrassment of the resultant mess.

    3. it would be so hysterical to find out that BATFE is arresting GAO agents in a “sting” conducted on the dark web…

      Hysterical, but typical. Working for the government I am amazed on a daily basis how information cannot flow between two people in the same room…

    4. Mailclerk, make a great Nicholas Cage movie, huh? Thanks for the story, suspicions confirmed.

      2. There was that 1 episode of “Night Court” where hijinks ensued.

        I wonder if that is where the CI got the idea.

        1. I suspect the Romans had similar problems.

          They just had less of a sense of humor, and rather …. direct and harsh sentencing.

    6. Just for the record, 11B-M, Gunwalker and F & F were separate operations by different administrations. IIRC, Gunwalker was BushII and the Mexican government was aware of what was goin’ on as it hapened. F & F was supposed to be on the QT and with no checks and balances as far as stopping the guns from going South and bein’ used. Seems there might’ve been a story about one of those guns even turnin’ up in the Paris shooting. It is known that one F & F gun killed a Border Patrol agent. If you’d like, I’ll try to find some links to the stories.

      1. Not just that, it was also reported that more than one FFL Dealer involved with that called the BATFE to report a suspicious buyer and was told by them to go ahead and let it happen anyway. The Previous Administration was one huge hive of scumbaggery and corruption.

        1. Yeah, API, I think that was the rationale behind F & F in the first place. They were intending to make it look as though illegal sales were happening all the time. If one of those guns was used in a crime, the plan was to show that existing gun laws weren’t strong enough. Obvious justification for just a little more “common sense” gun control, right? Hose ’em all.

  10. A person who was ineligible of buying a firearm and is willing to buy a gun of questionable origin from another criminal was able to do so?

    They should make a law…

  11. I skimmed the GAO report and nowhere could I find how much they paid for an AR with the serial # obliterated and what turned out to be a semi-auto Uzi. Gunbroker has garden varity ARs for around $700, and Class III Uzis for $15K or so.

    Caveat emptor.

  12. But…but…they told me that all criminals need to do to get a gun is go online, and that we need to close the gun show loop hole. Next you assholes will tell me Santa isn’t real.

  13. Haha over 15% scams. Too bad it wasn’t 100%. Is scamming criminals even illegal?

  15. So their attempts to purchase from law-abiding citizens universally failed, and their even their attempts to buy via an obvious criminal enterprise resulted in only two weapons, one of them falsely advertised. It’s almost like they’ve been completely full of shit the entire time!

  16. A while back I read that firearms on the Dark Web – some using BitCoin – were hyper-inflated. Like a factory Glock 17 might run $1050 or higher depending on the market.
    Much cheaper to support your local vendor at the parking lot of the local Stop ‘N Rob at 0300 and buy from the trunk of ‘Lil 2 Stumps for $50 and a pack of smokes.

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