The Supreme Court ruled against the gun lobby for the second time this term Monday when it concluded with a slim majority that “straw” purchases of guns are illegal.
In the 5-4 decision on Abramski v. United States, the court held that a legal firearm owner cannot buy a gun for another, even if the person the weapon is purchased for is a legal gun owner himself.
The case involved a former Virginia police officer, Bruce Abramski, who acquired a Glock 19 handgun for his uncle, also a legal gun owner. Abramski identified himself as the “actual transferee/buyer” in paperwork, which led to him being convicted of making false statements. He claimed that federal gun law, written to prevent firearms from falling into illegal hands, did not apply to his purchase.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the majority opinion, “No piece of information is more important under federal firearms law than the identity of a gun’s purchaser — the person who acquires a gun as a result of a transaction with a licensed dealer,” siding with Justices Breyer, Kennedy, Ginsburg and Sotomayor.
In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia knocked the majority for deeming the uncle the actual purchaser of the firearm. “If I give my son $10 and tell him to pick up milk and eggs at the store, no English speaker would say that the store ‘sells’ the milk and eggs to me,” he wrote.
“The Court makes it a federal crime for one lawful gun owner to buy a gun for another lawful gun owner,” Scalia explained. “Whether or not that is a sensible result, the statutes Congress enacted do not support it — especially when, as is appropriate, we resolve ambiguity in those statutes in favor of the accused.”
In another victory for gun control advocates earlier this year, the court ruled that guns could be kept away from domestic violence offenders even when the crime was deemed merely “offensive touching.”
