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SALT LAKE CITY -- Many people are becoming more accustomed to buying items online instead of in a physical store, but law enforcement officials are concerned with the growing sales of firearms online.
Following an extensive undercover investigation, the New York Police Department, Thursday, released a study called "Point, Click, Fire," which involved the popular section of classifieds on ksl.com.
Many firearms buyers are turning to websites like ksl.com to purchase guns because there are no background checks, which could potentially put guns in the wrong hands. It is the private, illegal types of situation that have law enforcement agencies looking at ways to stop the sales.
Earlier this year, the city of New York City wanted to find out how many private sellers, who advertise online, comply with federal laws, which prohibit sales of firearms to criminals and other who cannot pass a background check.
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"We certainly went on and were able to buy guns," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "Just go look at the list of people on all of the websites and you'll see lots and lots of guns being advertised."
Investigators in New York looked at and contacted 125 firearms sellers on five different popular websites, which included three gun-oriented websites, Craigslist and ksl.com, which has had gun listings from the beginning.
"It is a category on ksl.com, and it continues to grow just like other things," said Brett Atkinson, general manager of ksl.com. "It's not our largest category; it's definitely not our smallest."
The New York study showed that 40 percent of guns are sold through private sellers: not reputable gun retailers. And 62 percent of those sellers do not care who they sold to - - no background checks at all.
The Deseret News examined the issue in Utah back in March. Shortly after, ksl.com met with state and federal firearms agencies, gun dealers and polled the public to create a strategy on how to deal with illegal sales.
"We took the approach of education," Atkinson said. "It's important to us that people are participating in safe firearms transactions -- that buyers and sellers are abiding by the law. So we wanted to make it easy for people to find that information as to what is their responsibility if they engage in firearms."
In the firearms section on ksl.com, there are links to various sites dealing with current firearms laws and safety tips, as well as other resources.
Ksl.com wasn't singled out in the New York investigation, but because of the large volume of users, many people try to sell their guns on the website, which prompted investigators to look into the website.
Email: kmccord@ksl.com
