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In Smith's defense, I suspect his statements have been taken somewhat out of context. I'm sure he has no problem with private parties selling to each other, but the premise brought up on this thread is that he'd want to get the transfer fees from transferring a firearm from one private party to another. These transfer fees are set by the dealer and are generally quite low ($10-$20), and are just meant to offset the hassle of having to log the gun in, log it out, call for the background check, etc. If someone told me that my gun shop could make 20 more transfers a week if I just supported this law, I'd tell them to go pound sand--the paperwork hassle wouldn't be worth it (and, indeed, many dealers refuse to do them at all). Just my $.02.

The fees may start out quite low, but that won't stop the legislature from tacking on whatever they want to them in the future - you now have to pay 50c for a glossy guide to the new Handgun Safety Certificate in California, and a private-party transfer that I did yesterday cost me $35 after all the "dollar here, two dollars there" charges were tacked on.

These transfer fees are set by the dealer and are generally quite low ($10-$20)

In Illinois, transfer fees are often $75 or so; I don't think I've ever seen one under $50.