“There are no private sales in CA, all person to person transactions must go through a dealer intermediary (with background check) to be legal.”
I don’t believe it is true that the BG checks law goes back to the 1920’s, at least not insofar as long guns and shotguns are concerned. Plus, I will wager that there are a lot of unregistered handguns around that change hands outside an FFL.
Never said that people *complied* with those restrictions, just that the law said it had to go through a dealer to be legal. Also, remember that liberals think that law = reality, so best not to mention it to them. Better to point out that CA “has full universal background checks” and that it’s done nothing at all to solve gun violence.
I do know that CA’s waiting period for firearms goes back to 1923... and has done nothing.
CA’s Dealer Record Of Sale, wherein the dealer must report sale of a firearm to the state, dates back to 1924. It replaced an earlier scheme from 1917. This has also done nothing.
You are correct that the current ‘no private sale, all sales must go through dealers’ law dates back to 1991, but prior to that many if not most cities in CA had similar requirements up until 1969 when the state claimed supremacy over it.
More info here: http://wiki.calgunsfoundation.org/Time_Line_of_California_Firearms_Laws#Dealer.27s_Record_of_Sale_.28DROS.29.2C_1924
It reads like the wish list of people who claim ‘we only need a few restrictions’ - and none of it has worked.