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A28 u.s. news
Diaranson 12 october 2022

Florida shrimpers race to get battered fleet

back to sea

Seller exploits gun-

buyback loophole with

help of 3D printer

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York's attorney general
has changed the rules of a state gun buyback pro-
gram after a participant exploited the system by us-
ing a 3D printer to make firearm parts in bulk that
he then turned in for $21,000 in gift cards.

The seller, who identified himself by a pseudonym, said
he traveled from West Virginia to a gun buyback Aug. 27
in Utica, New York, to take advantage of a loophole in the
program — and to demonstrate that buybacks are futile in
an era of printable weapons.
At the buyback, he turned in 60 printed auto sears, small
FORT MYERS BEACH, crane lifted the outrigger of Richard Brown's situation is devices that can convert firearms into fully automatic
Fla. (AP) — The seafood grounded shrimper Aces & just as precarious. A citizen of weapons. Under the rules of the buyback, hosted by At-
industry in southwest Eights — the first step toward Guyana who was working on torney General Letitia James' office and city police, that
Florida is racing against getting it back in the water. a boat out of Miami when Ian entitled him to $350 for each of the printed parts, includ-
time and the elements to Across the yard, the massive hit southwest Florida, Brown ing a $100 premium, since they were deemed "ghost guns"
save what's left of a major Kayden Nicole and Renee rode out the storm on one of lacking serial numbers.
shrimping fleet — and a Lynn sat side-by-side in the four boats that were lashed
lifestyle — that was bat- parking lot, stern to bow. together along a harbor sea- The seller, who declined to provide his real name, said
tered by Hurricane Ian. wall. in an email to The Associated Press on Monday that the
Shrimping is the largest piece prospect of making money was enticing, but that the big
The storm's ferocious wind of Florida's seafood industry, There's no way to catch reason he took part in the buyback was to send a message.
and powerful surge hurled a with a value of almost $52 shrimp on a boat surrounded
couple dozen shrimp boats million in 2016, state statistics by dirt, so Brown is stay- He called the idea of buybacks "ridiculously stupid," add-
atop wharves and homes show. Gulf of Mexico shrimp ing busy scraping barnacles ing that "the people running this event are horribly uned-
along the harbor on Estero from Fort Myers has been off the hull of the Gulf Star. ucated about guns, gun crime, and the laws surrounding
Island. Jesse Clapham, who shipped all over the United "It's like it's on dry dock," he the regulation of guns."
oversees a dozen trawlers States for generations. said — but he's no more sure
for a large seafood company what to do now than at the James' office said it responded to the exploited loophole
at Fort Myers Beach, is try- Now, it's a matter of when height of the storm. by giving buyback personnel more discretion to deter-
ing to get boats back to sea as the fishing can resume and mine the value of weapons being handed in, and setting
quickly as possible — before whether there will still be Seafood fleets along the Gulf a standard that all 3D-printed guns accepted by the pro-
their engines, winches and experienced crews to operate Coast are used to getting gram must be capable of being fired more than once.
pulleys seize up from being the boats when that happens. wiped out by hurricanes. Ka-
out of the water. trina pummeled the industry The new rules were in place by Sept. 17, when the attor-
Deckhand Michele Bryant from Louisiana to Alabama in ney general's office hosted a gun buyback in the Syracuse
One of two shrimpers that didn't just lose a job when 2005, and the seafood busi- suburb of Camillus.
didn't sink or get tossed onto the boat where she works was ness in southern Louisiana
land went out Sunday, but grounded, she lost her home. is still recovering from Hur- Buybacks are a popular way for government officials to try
the victory was small com- Shrimping crews are at sea ricane Ida's punch last year. to get guns off the streets, typically with a promise of no
pared with the task ahead. for as long as two months at But this part of Florida hasn't questions asked, and amnesty for someone who turns in
a time, she said, so members seen a storm like Ian in a cen- an illegal weapon.
"There's 300 people who often don't have homes on tury, leaving people to won-
work for us and all of them land. der what happens next. Some firearms turned in to those programs are legally
are out of a job right now. I'm owned. Others are relinquished by people who aren't al-
sure they'd rather just mow lowed to own weapons or are turning in guns that have
all this stuff down and build been illegally altered.
a giant condo here, but we're
not going to give up," said The rule change by James comes as state and federal of-
Clapham, who manages the ficials attempt to deal with the proliferation of ghost guns.
fishing fleet at Erickson and President Joe Biden announced in April changes to the
Jensen Seafood, which he definition of a firearm under federal law to include un-
said handles $10 million in finished parts, which would include those made by 3D
shrimp annually. printers.

The company's fractured The New York attorney general's office has been host-
wharves, flooded office and ing buybacks since 2013. James has recently warned that
processing house are located ghost guns are fueling a "gun violence epidemic" and sees
on Main Street beside an- buybacks as part of the solution, as do police forces in
other large seafood company, Syracuse and elsewhere.
Trico Shrimp Co. There, a