WaPo Looks at “Gun Show Loophole”
Posted by FirearmsTruth on July 18, 2010 · 4 Comments
Yet another round of noise was heard this week from the mainstream media, including The Washington Post on the topic of the infamous “gun show loophole,” and the paper notes that the latest call its closure include survivors from Virginia Tech.
We do feel for these victims, and truthfully any victim of violent crime – whether a gun was used or not. The point however, remains a vast understanding of the issue of guns, gun shows and private sales. The paper noted how Colin Goddard, a former Virginia Tech student told about his work with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which documented “the ease with which he could buy arms at gun shows.”
The blog post from WaPo offers little in the way of counterpoint, so it is a typical anti-gun story. That isn’t really all the surprising.
Nor is the tone of the story all that surprisging. After all, shouldn’t it be easy to buy guns at a gun show? Just as it should be easy to buy a boat at a boat show, or furniture at a furntiure store. The purpose of a gun show is to sell guns. And yes, many states allow guns to be sold by private individuals without a background check.
What is seldom reported is that the criminal is already breaking the law for being at said gun show, is breaking the law for touching the guns and is breaking the law for buying the guns. Criminals will always find a way to get guns, and banning private sales would truly hurt the sport shooters, hunters and collectors. Of course we don’t expect the anti-gun crowd to care. But we’ll make the point again, if you want to solve drunk driving problems, ban all alcohol. That is essentially what the anti-gun is trying to do.
Banning private sales would increase costs to those who obey the law but wouldn’t make it that much harder for criminals to get guns.
OK Peter, you say that ” the criminal is already breaking the law for being at said gun show (not true- there are no laws against gun show attendance), is breaking the law for touching the guns (not true the law is against possessing, not touching) and is breaking the law for buying the guns (true)”.
You obviously don’t think that all this law breaking is acceptable, so what would you do to stop it? How would you identify these criminals, since they refuse to all wear black hats these days?
It seems reasonable to me to use a background check on a purchaser to identify the criminal and sort them from all the law abiding gun buyers that are already willing to have a background check to buy there guns from Federal licensed dealers. NOBODY is trying to ban private sales! NOBODY is trying to stop people from giving guns to relatives. NOBODY is trying to prevent people that can pass background checks from buying guns. So instead of just whining about things that are not true, how about a well constructed argument and plan that would make it harder for criminals to use gun shows to get arms? I am not holding my breath for an answer!
Thank you richmonddad for pointing out the obvious flaws in Peter’s reasoning. The reason that criminals CAN break the law by buying these guns is because we allow them to by not requiring background checks on all of the sales at gun shows. So then, as you said, why not stop them? People are selling guns at the shows to make money, just as at boat shows and car shows. But boats and cars are not designed to kill people though occasionally do when not operated correctly or due to an accident or manufacturers’ flaws. If background checks were required for sales of cars and boats at these shows, presumably every buyer would need one. I can’t imagine a scenario in which some would be exempted. We might want to screen out those with DUIs perhaps? It is only gun shows that allow for exemptions for some sellers which then allows criminals, terrorists, domestic abusers and dangerously mentally ill people to walk away with a weapon which will likely be used to kill someone.
sorry “their guns” not “there guns” – damned spell checker needed!