Posted on 04/14/2009 7:28:40 PM PDT by marktwain
What is the gun show loophole? It is the ability of a person to buy a gun from another attendee at the show, person to person, with no Instacheck to see if the buyer is a felon, or for any other reason should not be able to have a gun. If a person buys a gun from a Federal Fire Arms licensed dealer at the show, they must show ID and get the InstaCheck.
On it's surface, this seems like a bad thing. The ABC television show 20/20 last Friday documented the ease with which a man bought lots of guns with $5,000 cash and filled the trunk of his car. Who is such a rabid gun nut that they wouldn't want to close the "gun show loophole"?
Buying guns at a gun show, man to man, is no different than me selling my neighbor a gun after we wrap up a practice session at the local pistol range.
A gun show is a concentrated marketplace where buyers and sellers gather, but the principle that I can buy or sell something that is legal to own applies at a gun show or over my back fence. It is currently illegal to sell a gun to a minor, a felon, or someone under a restraining order. There are other laws state by state, but those are the biggies. It is illegal to use that gun in lots and lots of ways by anyone. I am told that there are currently about 20,000 laws currently on the books dealing with what we can and can not do with our guns. Right now, we can still buy or sell a gun to someone as long as it is a legal weapon and we observe the laws currently on the books in the state where we do the transaction.
Consider what must be done to close the "Gun Show Loophole":
Everyone who owns guns or wants to buy a gun would have to be background checked, then entered into a Federal database, earning them a gun owner's permit or license
To stay current, these licenses could only be good or a year or two at a time, as circumstances change
Every gun currently in the United States would need to be inventoried, ID'd by serial number and registered to its present owner
Every gun entering the country or manufactured here would have to be ID'd and its sale registered to its new owner, and recorded in a federal database
Every year, you would have to bring your inventory down to the police station, or have a police officer come to your house and inventory your collection to see if there is any change
If you wanted to sell your old .38 revolver to your neighbor, you and he would have to truck on down to the closest FFL dealer and pay some fee to get your neighbor Instachecked, then you and he would have to go to the local police station to make sure their records show the transfer so you stay legal for next year's inventory.
Hey, that sounds just like Representative Bobby Rush's bill, HR45! Remember I told you to write your congressmen and women about killing that bill? I also asked you to write the representatives on the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terror and Homeland Security, asking them to never let that bill out of committee.
Do it. Do it now!
A Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report on Firearms Use by Offenders found that fewer than 1% of U.S. crime guns came from gun shows, with repeat offenders even less likely than first-timers to buy guns from any retail source.
The liberals are going “Full court press” on us on all of their pet social issues...
Gun Control/bans
Hate Speech legislation
Higher taxes
Amnesty/citizenship for illegals
Disarmament of the US Military/appeasement of dictators
Global Warming tax scam
More power to the UN
Here is what Obama and the Democrats are proposing for a gun control bill...
1. An expanded HR 45, gun owner licensing. All gun owners will have to have these licenses, even owners of facilimie weapons (AKA Airsoft and BB). Licenses will only be granted if the records of the applicant are clean (This includes misdemeanors from decades ago). Licenses will have high renewal fees ($100-300/yr). Licensees will be required to hold $1 million in liability insurance. Possession of otherwise permitted weapons (See #3) without license is a felony.
2. Ammunition accountability... All ammo will be required to be microstamped and will be taxed $1/round. All non stamped ammo will be required to be turned in or thrown away. Possession of non-marked ammo is a felony. This part of the act also bans Cop Killer bullets. Furthermore, this will require the gun to leave a microstamp of its own on the ammo. (BTW, this will also affect law enforcement and military ammunition stocks, as they will be required to have stamps of their own)
3. Expanded Assault Weapons ban This includes most all semiauto rifles, anything that can be Bump Fired, Semiauto handguns, and Semi-auto shotguns. It also includes pump-action shotguns and Sniper Rifles AKA your deer rifle. The AWB will also require people with Prebans to register their guns as Machine Guns, and that the tax stamp will go up to $10,000 per weapon. If you cant afford this, you have to turn the weapon in without compensation...
4. Expansion of the Lautenbach amendment: Removes Domestic Violence as disqualifier to gun ownership, inserts any misdemeanor as disqualifer... Anyone with a misdemeanor on their record will be prohibited from owning a firearm. This includes DUI and traffic offenses, and offenses decades ago.
Finally, all CCW permits will be voided. Also, all gun and ammo imports will be banned.
Absolutely! This isn't about a "gun show loophole". It's a false issue. Licensed gun dealers are REQUIRED to do background checks at gun shows, and even yard sales.
What this is really about is regulating private sales between individuals. How do you enforce that?
...Registration
Seems they have to throw a bone to the trial lawyers at every turn. lol
No slippery slope here! It all started out with eliminating somebody's rights (and let's be frank, who's going to speak for the ex-felon, or registered sex offender, or jew or gypsy? nobody).
But in the process, any time you eliminate rights without due process of law, you change those rights to privileges. And when that comes back to bite you, such as the loss of the privilege to own a gun (and that's all it is anymore), don't go whining.
America -- a great idea, didn't last.
CA doesn’t allow private party sales. If I want to sell my .38 to my neighbor we have to go thru an FFL and a 10 day waiting period. This is true for both handguns and long guns. Handguns are automatically registered during the FFL process. It is not done separately or require additional paperwork. There is no license or annual renewal.
The “gun show loophole” is being able to sell a gun to your neighbor, your cousin, your brother; or giving a gun to your son or grandson. grandson or grandduaghter.
And “closing the gunshow loophole” is the holy grail of the Brady Bunch and assorted liberal whackjobs everywhere.
It makes them very nervous that we’re armed.
And rightly so...
“... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
There is no mention of any limitations there on felons, mentally incompentent or anything. If the liberals want such a limitation then they should be forced to have a constitutional convention to do so. (or the other course for amendments). Until then shut tf up.
As I understand it, we (non-felons, adults) have the right to private ownership of weapons (machine guns notwithstanding). Should the federal government attempt to revoke that right, where do the states stand? Can the states override a federal mandate to turn weapons in? Seems to me that no state outside of New England would put up with that.
The gun show loophole is a fiction created by fascist control freaks. The same laws apply at gun shows as apply everywhere else.
I especially like the part where the police come into your home once a year to check your inventory. I hope they call and make an appointment. If they do, I can have cake, ice cream and coffee ready for them. It will be a great opportunity to swap stories. They can tell me about the homes they visited and I can tell them about the new Internet protocol.
*oy vey* - Just all the shit poised to hit the fan.
I think any new attempted infringement from the feds will be greatly different in light of Heller, which wasn’t around during our last fed Assault Weapons Ban. The 2A was specifically addressed to the feds.
CA is what they want the rest of the US to look like. Broke, screwed up and unarmed.
About the way I figure it. Meanwhile, anything beyond shotguns and 22s should be buried or otherwise rendered unfindable at about this point.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.