Police: Officers grab suspect's loaded gun before he can get it out of his pants in Codman Square struggle

There was an article on this in the Globe a while ago. Even when training is free, quality training takes a few days and you need to have replacements on the street during the time, and that gets expensive.

I'm proud that Boston has made this a priority and is seriously committed to it.

Have you ever set foot in Hyde Park?

You're talking like you think this bozo drove to GA just to steal a gun from someone and drive back to Boston.

Ever watch some of the "life of a gun" documentaries? Which of the resellers, distributors, etc. should be busted for trafficking? Specifically. For this exact gun? You have no idea whose hands and how many hands touched this gun before it ended up in this dipshit's hands.

National gun control would make it less likely anyone would bring that gun to MA because any of the even semi-legal processes wouldn't be profitable any more. You would have to go all the way to GA and steal the gun and drive back to MA with more tracking and regulations on gun sales/ownership. In fact, the person who had it stolen in GA might even consider it a more important purchase and have kept it in a way that wasn't as easy to have stolen, etc.

I'm not talking about making a single law that says "don't steal guns and drive to another state".

An improved and/or mandated gun registry would do wonders to blunt the illegal gun trafficking. If every transfer of ownership regardless of where required a title transfer logged with the state authorities similar to a car, there'd be fewer gun laundering operations. Fewer pawnshops willing/able to buy stolen guns and then sell them to unsuspecting (or even suspecting) middle-men who would bring them to a completely new location. Fewer straw purchases or friends loaning out guns if they thought it would come back to bite them more easily. You force owners to perform mandatory reporting of stolen/missing weapons to clear the title. Buyers would have a Gunfax equivalent to Carfax to see the history of a gun better. Sellers would be unable to fence guns reported as stolen/missing as easily.

Then you revoke dealer licenses if they have too many guns go "stolen/missing" in a certain time period. If they can't be responsible enough to store/manage them properly, then can't be allowed to sell them at all. This prevents the illegal loophole some FFLs take when selling to buyers they know are likely to be purchasing for a crime but don't want the responsibility of having furnished the criminal the weapon (choosing to sell the gun off the books and report it missing/stolen later from their inventory with the registries already in place).

Then you revoke dealer licenses when that dealer displays a pattern for title transfers to people who then use the guns in crimes. A bartender must use judgement to prevent alcohol abuse in the name of public safety. A gun dealer should be forced to use judgement to prevent gun abuse in the name of public safety.

There are lots of methods that would close the free and easy transfer of guns around the country. These are methods we currently use in other places to good effect, like car registration and alcohol sales. Black market gun costs would soar making it less likely that every criminal would have one. Fewer guns would disappear from the system just to show up in a street crime because legitimate sellers would have more concern for their clientele. Straw purchasers would be more easily held liable for the actions of the gun they bought and gave away without retitling it.