Huff and Puff Calls for Background Checks on All Gun Sales

In writing for the Huffington Post, Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence offers another editorial responding to calls from law enforcement to require background checks for gun sales. We know where Mr. Helmke stands, and we respect his opinion, but some of the statements he makes in his argument see more like opinion rather than based on actual facts.

For example, he once again tackles the so-called “loophole” and writes:

“The loophole allows ‘private sellers’ of firearms to bypass Brady background checks, a loophole that is exploited, most often, at gun shows. Such sales are an easy way for convicted felons, the dangerously mentally ill, and other prohibited purchasers to arm themselves.”

There are a couple of problems with this statement. First, how does he, how would he know that the “loophole” is actually “exploited” at gun shows? Because private sales are “private,” we simply can’t know how many guns trade hands at other times.

Second, as we’ve stated, it is already a crime for any of the above to buy a gun in the first place. In the case of the mentally ill it is often hard to know if they are in fact “mentally ill,” and thus they wouldn’t be prohibited if a background check were done. If they were actually deemed “dangerously mentally ill,” we’d want to ask why they were off on their own in the first place?