Gun Show Loophole

One of the favorite topics of the anti-gun lobby is the supposed "gun show loophole", which somehow makes it OK for criminals to buy guns, so long as they do it at a gun show. Sounds pretty horrifying, doesn't it? If only it was actually true.

The fact of the matter is that there isn't a gun show loophole at all. Gun sales are under the same laws as all other firearms sales (in states that have not enacted tougher requirements already) -- that is, if you are a firearms dealer you need to run a background check before selling a gun to an individual. If you are NOT a firearms dealer, you can make a private sale to someone else without the need to conduct a background check. But according to federal law, you must be a dealer if you make a living selling firearms.

When the anti-gun lobby speaks of the "gun show loophole", what they are really talking about are private sales. In the United States, it is still legal to own property -- firearms -- and sell that property without government permission. If you want to sell a gun, you can sell it to a dealer, or you can try to find a buyer yourself -- perhaps a friend of yours, or a friend of a friend, or by taking an ad out in the local paper... or by taking the firearm to a gun show.

Since private citizens do NOT have access to the NICS instant-check system brought into being by the Brady Bill, there is no way for them to conduct a background check for a private sale. Thus, they can sell without that check. Otherwise, they couldn't sell at all, or they would be forced to pay a tax to run a check through a licensed dealer -- surely an overly-restrictive process for most private sales.

Part of the confusion stems from the number of private sellers at gun shows. There are often quite a few, and sometimes they have a large number of firearms for sale. Some of these individuals may appear to border on being firearms dealers. Why are they making private sales rather than obtaining dealer status? Because the government is discouraging them from doing exactly that.

It used to be fairly easy (if invasive) to become a firearms dealer. You got yourself fingerprinted, possibly talked to your local police, and filled out some forms for the BATF. That gave you legal license to act as a firearms dealer (and the legal responsibility to conduct background checks). However, in recent years, the BATF has begun a campaign of harassment intended to reduce the number of licensed dealers, and this campaign has targetted first and foremost those licensed dealers without a formal storefront -- ie, those individuals who registered as dealers because they did a large amount of firearms business, but who did not have it as a full-time occupation.

These were the individuals spending a lot of time buying and selling at gun shows -- the "almost dealers" we see today in many cases were dealers before the BATF made it too troublesome to retain that status for something not a full-time occupation.

Sure, there are others making private sales. These are mostly people selling off their gun collection, or that of a deceased relative, or people selling one or two guns at a time and buying about that many back. These people aren't selling lots of guns over time; those selling collections reach the end of their collection and stop selling, and those who are just interested have a low volume overall.

So if there are lots of people making private sales at gun shows... blame the BATF. They don't have to harass people doing the right thing by becoming dealers, even without a standard storefront for their business. But they did, and do... and as a result, the gun show "loophole".

The state of Virginia is considering legislation requiring 30 days prior police notice for "gun shows", defined to include any "gathering or exhibition" of two or more persons, in which one of the purposes is to exchange, sell, or trade firearms; the same bill also includes a requirement to provide the police a list of vendors and exhibitors in the show.

I find myself wondering if the author of the legislation intended to include any private sale in the definition of "gun show", and am forced to conclude that, probably, the answer is yes. 

Those of you in Virginia should probably be calling your legislators about now.

Those of us watching from the sidelines, however, can ponder this extra amusing piece of gristle in the legislative sausage:

The provisions of this section shall not apply to firearms shows held in any town with a population of not less than 1,995 and not more than 2,010, according to the 1990 United States census.

That has GOT to have been written to exclude a specific town from the bill.  Probably the legislator's hometown or some such favoritism, written to avoid being technically "favoritism" because it applies to all towns of the right size... and just happens to define the "right size" narrowly enough to exclude all but one.

UPDATE: Reader Standard Mischief has identified the legislator responsible for this particular bit of gristle, and is trying to identify it specifically.  Check the comments for more.

UPDATE: Gotcha!

"The town's primary claim to fame is its Hillsville Flea Market (more properly known as the VFW Flea Market & Gun Show), which has been called the largest American flea market to the east of the Mississippi River. It is held twice a year; in 2004, the Labor Day show attracted 650,000 visitors, and the Memorial Day show attracted 250,000 visitors. Vendors and customers have arrived from as far away as Germany, Africa, and South Korea."

Well isn't that interesting.  "Let's regulate all the gun shows -- except this one."

Hopes for passage of a state law to close the gun show loophole faded as the state's largest gun control group pulled its support from the legislation's records-retention provisions.

The bill in question -- SB57 -- requires that all firearm purchases at gun shows be subjected to a criminal background investigation before the sale is allowed to be concluded. The intent of the legislation is to prevent drug lords, terrorists, and gang bangers from obtaining weapons at gun shows.

A second provision of SB57 seeks to protect the privacy and security of lawful firearm owners by requiring the Illinois State Police to destroy records of lawful gun purchases after a 90-day retention period. This provision greatly exceeds the federal record retention period of 24 hours.

This is what I call a deal with the devil.  It's this sort of strategy that got us here in the first place.  If we continue to compromise, and to meet gun bigots "halfway" in some kind of good-faith bargain, we will continue to lose.  Any gun owners in Illinois who understand that should undertake to educate the rest.

Illinois has decided to close a loophole that doesn't exist.  The governor has signed a law requiring "unlicensed [gun] dealers" to conduct background checks on potential purchasers.  The problem is, there's no such thing as an unlicensed dealer -- either you are a dealer (in which case, you should be federally licensed) or you are a private seller (in which case, you need not be).  There's some question as to where the dividing line between those two categories should be, but if the BATFE thinks you're a dealer and you aren't licensed, they will try to put you in jail.

What this bill really does is require gun buyers to register their intent to purchase a firearm with the police and obtain permission for each purchase.  In short, it's registration.  However, since Illinois already has something they call a Firearm Owner's Identification Card, they already have registration of owners; this is just registering each purchase individually as well.

It's silly, and stupid, and won't do a damn thing to help.  But in terms of the state of liberty in Illinois, it's a salami slice rather than a large bite.

Oh well.

Hat tip to Alphecca.

I've heard of legislating from the bench, but legislating from the police chief's megaphone is a new one.  Gun Owners Foundation is reporting (via Heartless Libertarian) on a case in Washington State where the local police chief went to a gun show and announced, on the floor of the show, that only licensed FFL dealers were allowed to sell guns there -- without any backing legislation, just his fiat.

That's what I call a police state, folks.