Gunsforsale.com
As legal restrictions on gun shows and dealers increase, law enforcement officials fear the Internet may become the method of choice for illegal gun sales and purchases, reports CBS MarketWatch Correspondent Stacy Tisdale.
There are so many websites devoted to selling weapons, it's a sort of gun show online, according to a website gun dealer.
"For the buyer, you can be awake at 3 o'clock in the morning, sipping your cappucino and looking at a your favorite .44 Magnum," said Manny De La Cruz of auctionarms.com.
De La Cruz is quick to point out that, "to do it in a legal manner, the buyer and seller have to transfer that weapon through a federally licensed dealer."
Indeed, purchasing a gun online is supposed to be regulated by strict laws. But the system can be fooled: This week, two high school students from Montclair, N.J., were caught buying semi-automatic weapons over the Internet.
They faked a license and posed as a legitimate gun dealer.
Montclair Police Chief Thomas Russo said, "Via some cutting and pasting, they were able to put together some license that apparently looked legitimate enough to purchase eight firearms."
One of the suspects—both were turned in by a sharp UPS deliveryman—claimed they bought the guns as a hobby.
"We didn't buy the guns to shoot—never," he said.
Police say, however, that two of the guns were loaded.
The Montclair case aside, it's not just kids who are buying guns online.
Undercover detective Rob Overfield searched the Internet for anyone willing to sell him a gun without asking any questions.
"Within several days, the subject responded back that he had a Tech-9 for sale for $500 and he emphasized 'No paperwork,'" Overfield said. He arranged to meet the stranger, who sold him a gun which is banned for sale in Maryland under any circumstances.
"I could have been anybody," said Overfield. "I could have been a murderer, a robber. This man didn't ask who I was other than threatening me if I was a cop. He didn't care who I was."
Internet gun sales could become even more popular as traditional methods of getting guns become more strictly regulated.
"If gun shows are regulated so that every sale there is subject to a Brady background check, that will have the effect of squeezing one end of the balloon and pushing a lot of sales over onto the Internet," predicted Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center.
However, with no new legislation on the horizon, law enforcers are stuck with the problem of using 20th century laws to control 21st century technology.