By Ken Hanson

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Cleveland Municipal Court has launched a program that they think will help clear up some 25,000 outstanding warrants and get guns out of criminal hands. The scheme calls for known, wanted criminals to walk into a police station, turn in a gun, and walk out without posting bail for their outstanding warrants.

Far be it from us to rain on anyone’s parade, but we thought it would be helpful to point out a few problems with this idea.

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First, 25,000 outstanding warrants? Has the entire Cleveland Court and Police Department called in sick or are they waiting in line for their American Idol tryout? Even if each car on each shift of the police department worked just one warrant per day, and were successful just 25% of the time, they would clear more warrants in a month than this “guns for bail” program could ever possibly hope to clear.

The Associated Press is reporting federal officials believe private investigators hired by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to conduct undercover sting operations on gun shops in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia could be breaking the law, and the dealers caught making illegal sales in the stings will not face criminal prosecution.

From the story:

“Although a decision has been made not to move forward with case filings in these matters, there are potential legal liabilities that may attach when persons outside of law enforcement undertake actions typically reserved for law enforcement agents,” Department of Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra said Thursday.

That legal risk is “particularly acute when such persons misrepresent that they are the actual purchasers of the firearms,” he said.

City officials have sued more than two dozen dealers after hiring investigators to pose as buyers attempting straw purchases, in which one person fills out the paperwork for the gun but is buying for someone else. The scam is often used by convicted felons and others barred from owning firearms.

The city argues that the shops are responsible for many of the illegal weapons that end up in New York, and the suits have led seven dealers to agree to more scrutiny.

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