No one in the gun violence prevention movement has any illusions about the ultimate winner of the special Congressional election in the conservative NY-23 district somehow becoming a champion for our cause.

Yet as we now know, Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava — the NRA’s endorsed candidate — has dropped out of that race.

The most recent Siena poll put her in a distant third.

Many observers, however, raised expectations for the NRA endorsement in this right-wing bloodbath.

Stu Rothenberg said that notwithstanding her moderate stances on some issues:

[Scozzafava] received the endorsement from the National Rifle Association, and it could be important in fashioning her appeal to right-wing voters in the district.

Newt Gingrich said:

I endorsed the Republican who has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association….

Even the UK’s Telegraph, covering the high-profile race, reported:

She has the backing of the powerful National Rifle Association….

Yet without a vote being cast, the “powerful” National Rifle Association has already failed to elect an endorsed candidate for office in this election cycle — in a conservative district where one would think their endorsement means the most.

Want to see the gun show loophole in action?

The Kansas City Star reports today on a guilty plea by someone who admits to frequenting gun shows, buying and selling assault weapons, and sending weapons to Mexico:

…Mynor Guerra, 25, a Guatemalan citizen who was living in Overland Park, was arrested at a Kansas City gun show in June by federal agents who confiscated two AR-15 semi-automatic rifles from the trunk of his car. He had a phony Missouri driver’s license and used a fake Social Security number, according to federal prosecutors….

[more]

Guerra’s plea agreement is even more eye-opening.

From pages 2 – 4:

…On July 25, 2009, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) conducted surveillance of a gun show being held at the Expo Center at Kansas City International Airport, in Kansas City, Western District of Missouri. Around 12:30 p.m., Agent Gordon Mallory observed Mynor GUERRA carrying an AR-15 rifle. He was outside the Expo Center in a parking lot walking away from the front doors. GUERRA took a circuitous route to his vehicle, which was parked behind the adjoining hotel to the west of the Expo Center. He looked over his shoulder several times. He placed the weapon in the trunk of a Green Toyota Camry….

GUERRA walked back into the show, approached a display table, pulled out a large sum of cash, and proceeded to purchase a second AR-15 rifle without filling out any paperwork. GUERRA immediately exited the building and began walking away, again taking a circuitous route to his vehicle. Eventually, he made his way to the Camry and put the rifle in the trunk. Uniformed officers of the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department stopped GUERRA’s green Camry a short time after he departed from the gun show. When stopped, he presented a Missouri driver’s license issued to Elliot C. Oquendo, an Hispanic male, d/o/b 05/02/1982.

…After about ten minutes of false stories, the suspect admitted that he was Mynor GUERRA and that he was an illegal alien from Guatemala. He was arrested for being an illegal alien in possession of firearms, specifically two AR-15 style rifles. The rifles were recovered from the trunk along with gun show calendars listing shows in several different states. Also recovered were two clips, one designed to hold 15 rounds of ammunition, and a second designed to hold 30 rounds. The first rifle was a Stag Arms, model Stag-15 .223 caliber rifle, # 41720, manufactured in Connecticut. The second rifle was a Bushmaster, model XM-15-E25, .223 caliber rifle, # L141024.

…GUERRA admitted that he sells guns for extra money and that he had been planning on selling the two rifles. He admitted to buying and selling guns for the last six months, and he specifically described buying at [sic] seven firearms at gun shows for $550 to $850 each. He stated that he sold the guns to an intermediary, and the guns then went to Mexico. With GUERRA’s consent, officers conducted a search at his apartment at 6402 W. 89th Street, Apartment #1, Overland Park, Kansas. GUERRA’s girlfriend Deby Verbena was interviewed at the residence, where she also lived. She stated that GUERRA goes to gun shows and that he sells guns. Six magazines and nine handgun holders and cases were discovered in the residence along with various gun cleaning supplies and firearms manuals. Five gun show calendars were also discovered as well as a Western Union receipt in the amount of $4000 to Elliot Castro Oquendo. Three Social Security cards in Elliot Castro Oquendo’s name were also recovered.

By entering into this plea agreement, the defendant admits that all of the preceding facts are correct….

These events are not surprising.  Investigators have shown how easy it is to avoid background checks at gun shows over and over again.

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association tells us the gun show loophole doesn’t exist.

They should ask Mynor Guerra.  He knows it exists.

He used it to buy illegal assault weapons with no background check and no paperwork.  And all that unlicensed gun show sellers needed from him was his cash.

After Guerra’s purchases, he re-sold his assault weapons to a middleman who sold them again into Mexico, where drug gangsters use them to kill police and innocent civilians.

Make no mistake: this is the illegal gun market that the NRA and their apologists in Congress fight every day to keep free of criminal background checks and other reasonable regulations.

At the same time, American criminals know the gun show loophole exists, too.

And like Mynor Guerra, they exploit it for everything it’s worth.

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UPDATE: On receiving queries from some readers, we’ve changed the title of this post to  reflect “immigrant” rather than “alien,” which is pejorative in many immigrant communities.  “Alien” is used in the plea agreement, and we copied that language into the title.  No offense was intended.

Republican candidate Bob McDonnell must be really happy that the NRA is spending over a half-million dollars on TV ads that tell his supporters to vote on the wrong day in November.

(Hint: It’s not “November 2nd.”)

Click the image below to watch:

Looks sort of like a cross between Stanley Kubrick and Mel Brooks.

Recall, however, that this comes from the folks who spent more than $13 million to elect President McCain; who so effectively bullied Senators on the nomination of Justice Sotomayor that the Senate confirmed her with 68 votes — including 12 NRA ‘A’ rated votes; who failed to intimidate the Senate into forcing states to accept out-of-state concealed carry permits; and who — so far in Virginia — have managed to not only foul up the correct date of the election, but also “reinforce defaming stereotypes” of Italian-Americans in their campaign ads for Bob McDonnell.

But you know, aside from that, the NRA sure is a scary political machine.

For a gang that can’t shoot straight.

(H/T Ben Smith at Politico.)

The National Rifle Association released a humorous statement on Friday that deserves a response.

Last week, the Associated Press reported on the release of a report by a group of policy experts called the Bi-national Task Force on the United States-Mexico Border.

Among other things, the Task Force recommended that the United States help improve security along our two nations’ common border “by aggressively investigating gun sellers, regulating gun shows, [and] reinstituting the Clinton-era ban on assault weapons….”

After some investigation — i.e., using the internet and the telephone — Brady Campaign staff found the source document on the Web site of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations.

As you can see, however, that document is in Spanish, and an English-language version of the report was not yet available online.

Drawing on our network of grassroots activists, our Million Mom March Chapter President in South Florida quickly translated the relevant sections of the report’s Executive Summary, and confirmed what we saw in the Associated Press report.

Soon after, staff at the Pacific Council on International Policy sent us an English-language version of the Executive Summary.

We then issued this release.

Now, to return to the standard-issue NRA histrionics:

According to the Pacific Council, the report is being released under the auspices of the Mexican CFR on November 13th and is absolutely unavailable until that time. The Brady Campaign, naturally, has a copy of the report anyway….

(emphasis added.)

First of all, according to the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations, the report was rolled out on October 13th. Hence the AP report the next day.

Second, the Spanish-language version of the report’s Executive Summary was available online last Wednesday to anyone with an internet connection.

Third, the English-language version of the Executive Summary is now also online.

It is understandably difficult to crank out new conspiracy theories to keep the contributions coming in — such as the recent NRA telemarketing scheme to scare people about a UN takeover of U.S. gun laws.

But it’s a little sad that nobody at NRA HQ could speak enough Spanish or use “the internets” well enough to head off this latest embarrassing shout-out to Oliver Stone.

Meanwhile, America’s weak gun laws fuel the awful violence that plagues both sides of our southern border, and the NRA will do all it can do make sure this country does nothing to stop it.