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. Markoff explained the out-of-state license by claiming he had just enrolled at Daniel Webster College, in Nashua. The clerk responded by asking him to obtain a residency affadavit notarized by the city.This is not the kind of due diligence one should expect from a gun shop. In fact, when there are such obvious indicators that everything is not on the up-and-up, the gun shop that agrees to sell is guilty of breaking federal law and should be shut down immediately.
Markoff went to the city clerk’s office, wrote out a form in which he misspelled his own alias, and obtained the notarized record. No rent check, tuition payment, or utility bill was required; the city clerk later explained to investigators that no documentation is necessary for a notarized residency affidavit.
Now, Brisman’s mother says she wants those responsible for Markoff’s obtaining the gun to be held accountable. The US attorney sees no grounds for a criminal case, because there was no intentional conduct. But the family could yet sue. New Hampshire jurors would then have to decide whether the state’s libertarian streak excuses a gun merchant’s decision to sell to a man with a patently fake ID.What's your opinion? Is it too much to ask FFL gun dealers to maintain a strict standard of conduct? I don't think so, what do you think?
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