An excellent analysis in plain English by Crotchety Geek:
There’s no difference between “at a gun show” and “not at a gun show”. Go to a dealer at a gun show, do the background check thing. That’s 99.9(probably another 9 or 2) percent of all the gun sales. Just like seeing the same dealer at his shop.
Run into a private seller (1 or 2 guys walking around carrying guns with 4 sale signs stuck in the muzzles), and it’s the same as buying at a flea market, yard sale, or from a newspaper ad or Craigslist. He CAN’T do a background check, because he doesn’t have access to the database. Only dealers do. (rest at my LJ)
The most recent bill mandated that the gun show provide a dealer who can do checks for Joe Sixpack. Maximum service charge over the usual ($3.00) background check fee, was $15.00 per the bill. So, a gun dealer has to drop working on selling HIS guns, to help sell MY gun. In return, he makes 15 bucks. Meanwhile, either I eat the cost or my buyer pays SIX times the usual amount for a background check that we can simply punt by taking the gun across the street to the McDonalds parking lot.
In the past 15 years, I’ve gone through somewhere around (counting on fingers) 30 background checks. That’s between gun permit applications / renewals, and gun purchases. I’ve bought two guns in private sales in that period, and sold one (after recording the guy’s driver’s license info and noting that he had a voter card - felons can’t vote). In what way would one more check on me make any conceivable difference?
This is not to mention the fact that no felon in his right mind would go into a gun show looking for a private sale. Prohibited persons can’t knowingly be in the same room as a gun - they “have access to a firearm” at that point. Also, if you ask a guy at a table whether he’s doing background checks, he’ll get paranoid. I found out that my last gun purchase was private when I asked for a background check form, and he told me it was cash-and-a-handshake.
Per the FBI, less than 1% of crime guns were bought at gun shows. Of those 0.something%, there’s no way to trace whether they were bought BY THE CRIMINAL. More likely, they were bought by someone like me and then stolen from the buyer.
Basically, the “Gun Show Loophole” is a scam issue. People who want to ban guns exploit those who’ve been hurt, to push their agenda. Take someone who’s grieving the loss of a loved one, at the hands of a lunatic or a common crook. Convince them that “if it saves ONE life, it’s worth it”. Get ‘em on the gun-BANdwagon. Never mind the value of guns for self-defense. The odds of registering private sales actually doing any good, are about on a par with the odds of someone winning the Powerball. Should I be forced to buy 18 Powerball tickets every time I go shopping?
Some of the other “Gun Show Loophole” bills out there basically make it impossible to have private sales at gun shows, at all. The McCain-Lieberman federal one would have imposed enough of a liability burden, to kill gun shows entirely. Come to think of it, maybe that’s what some people want.
Wow. Nothing else I can add.
Print this out and hand it to your favorite anti-gun lunatic the next time they start spouting off about the evil gun show loophole.
firearm, Gun Show Loophole, McCain-Lieberman, gun
