Hands that hand a gun to a killer

THERESA JONES had a drug problem and an empty wallet.

In 2003, when a neighbor offered her $75 to buy him a gun, she readily agreed, even though the man had a criminal record and couldn't legally buy or possess a gun. After the sale, the neighbor carried off his new Ruger 9 mm pistol. Jones never saw it again.

Four years later, in one of the city's toughest 'hoods, Raymond Hainey was on a quest for vengeance.

He saw 19-year-old Nazir Gary and acted quickly.

He brandished Jones' pistol and blasted Gary as the teen drove in Kingsessing on a frigid afternoon three days before Christmas 2007.

Today, Jones remains in penal purgatory, awaiting sentencing for her role in arming a killer.

In the war against gun violence, crimefighters are cracking down on "straw purchasers," that is, people like Jones who commit a felony by buying guns for convicts prohibited from purchasing them themselves.

Thugs recruit acquaintances with clean records to buy them guns, and women are a growing target.

Blinded by love or fueled by financial need, women represent a quarter of about 350 straw buyers arrested in Philadelphia since a multiagency Gun Violence Task Force launched in 2006, data shows.

But few straw purchasers realize the penalties that await those caught, thanks to a recent law that stiffened punishment for straw buyers.

"They foolhardily expose themselves to serious time in prison: If you buy more than one gun , you subject yourself to a mandatory minimum sentence of five to 10 years," said Thomas Burke, senior supervisory agent of the Gun Violence Task Force.

That means that straw buyers can end up serving more time behind bars than the punks who actually used the illegal gun in crimes. And for women, many of whom are single mothers, such strict sentences can turn their children into orphans.

Such outcomes have prompted some critics to question the fairness of the law.

"Women in the throes of drug addiction or acting out of romantic loyalties are sitting ducks and have no idea they are being thrown to the wolves," said Glenn Gilman, a defense attorney who represents Jones, now 46. "Yes, committed a technical crime, but do they deserve the draconian penalty imposed?"

Law-enforcers say that they do.

"There's a lot of responsibility when it comes to buying a firearm, both from personal safety and how you secure that weapon," said Mark Potter, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia field division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Finding the source

In a city that averages five shootings a day, guns loom large in Philadelphia's crime-fighting efforts.

Authorities recover about 5,000 crime guns a year, Potter said. And firearms are killers' preferred weapon, with 80 percent of the city's homicides carried out by gun-toting thugs.

"Because guns are manufactured to last a very, very long time, the life of a crime gun is infinite," Potter said.