Garden State Patriot

Senator, Laut…err…Lousenberg is the primary sponsor of legislation to close a so-called “gun show loophole.” The bill would do the following:

The Senators’ bill would close the loophole by requiring background checks on all sales at gun shows. The bill defines a gun show as any event where 50 or more guns are offered or exhibited for sale. In addition, the bill would require:

• gun show promoters to register with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), maintain a list of vendors at all gun shows and ensure that all vendors acknowledge receipt of information about their legal obligations; and

• federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to submit information, including the manufacturer/importer, model and serial number of firearms transferred at gun shows to the ATF’s National Tracing Center (NTC). No personal information about either the seller or the purchaser would be given to the ATF. Instead, as under current law, FFLs would maintain personal information in their files. The National Tracing Center would request personal information from an FFL only if a firearm becomes the subject of a law enforcement trace request.

In typical liberal style, Lousenberg used the events like the anniversary of the Columbine shootings and the Virginia Tech shootings to gin up emotion and support for his initiative.

With the anniversaries of the Virginia Tech massacre and Columbine shootings in the news, Sen. Frank Lautenberg will push again Tuesday to close the so-called gun show loophole that lets some gun sales go through without background checks of the buyers. In a statement to Whispers, Lautenberg said: “There is no rational reason to oppose closing the loophole. The reason it’s still not closed is simple: the continuing power of the special-interest gun lobby in Washington. My legislation would require background checks for every gun purchased at every gun show across America and would keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. Without this change in the law, anyone—from felons to fugitives—can buy a gun at a gun show, no questions asked. That needs to change.”

Interestingly, liberals like Lousenberg who push for anti-gun legislation don’t seem to be as interested in protecting us from criminals who cross our borders and commit violent crimes, let alone preventing terrorists from entering our country anywhere along our southern border (but I digress).

The Viriginia Tech killer, I might add, did not purchase his weapons at a gun show.

More to the point, however, the first thing to understand about this is exactly what is being referred to as a “loophole.” Wikipedia describes it as follows:

The “gun show loophole” is a term coined by gun control advocates to describe the legal sale of firearms between private individuals at gun shows in states where this is legal. When these sales take place at a gun show, some perceive a “loophole” in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), although these laws have never applied to individual-to-individual sales of personal firearms. United States federal law requires persons engaged in interstate firearm commerce, or who are in the business of selling firearms, to hold a Federal Firearms License and to perform checks prior to transferring a firearm, but there is an exemption for private sales by individuals who are “not engaged in the business” of selling firearms, or who only make “occasional” sales. Unlicensed private sellers are permitted by law to sell privately-owned guns at gun shows, or at any other location, in 24 states (as of 1998).^[9]

Senator Lousenberg and his anti-gun partners would like to have us believe that dealers are somehow skirting the law, but this is simply not the case. The law just does not require private individuals to have a license. And any dealer who tried to sell a firearm without a license would immediately be arrested and prosecuted.

Furthermore, very few of these private transactions actually even occur at gun shows. In an article by David Kopel of the Cato Institute, David explains:

Conversely, people who are not engaged in the business of selling firearms, but who sell firearms from time to time (such as a man who sells a hunting rifle to his brother-in-law), are not required to obtain the federal license required of gun dealers or to call the FBI before completing the sale.

Similarly, if a gun collector dies and his widow wants to sell the guns, she does not need a federal firearms license because she is just selling off inherited property and is not “engaged in the business.” And if the widow doesn’t want to sell her deceased husband’s guns by taking out a classified ad in the newspaper, it is lawful for her to rent a table at a gun show and sell the entire collection.

If you walk along the aisles at any gun show, you will find that the overwhelming majority of guns offered for sale are from federally licensed dealers. Guns sold by private individuals (such as gun collectors getting rid of a gun or two over the the weekend) are the distinct minority.

Yet HCI claims that “25-50 percent of the vendors at most gun shows are unlicensed dealers.” That statistic is true only if one counts vendors who aren’t selling guns (e.g., vendors who are selling books, clothing or accessories) as “unlicensed dealers.”

David’s last point is likewise quite important. Lousenberg has used the 25-50 percent statistic in his efforts to sell this bill. But he is clearly being disingenuous in this respect because, as Mr. Kopel points out, many of the vendors at gun shows are not selling guns.

Last but not least, very few gun crimes – a mere 2% in fact – are committed using firearms purchased at gun shows. Again, via Wikipedia:

A 1997 Department of Justice survey of 3,959 prison inmates found that only 2% stated that they had bought a gun used in a crime from a gun show.^[10] The remaining 98% were obtained from other sources, in which the criminal had no direct connection with a gun show. The most common sources (35%) were family or friends.^[11]

Considering the facts I have outlined, it is difficult not to conclude that this is just another effort by the left-wing to infringe on the right to bear arms and an utterly misguided attempt prevent gun crimes. Even if enacted, this legislation would do little if anything in this respect. But what it would do is set the stage for the next incremental step to prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their 2nd Amendment rights.

Americans deserve an honest and truthful debate about gun issues, not the kind of demagoguery being put forth by the likes of Senator Lousenberg.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude! and Red County.