“Every year there are more than 4,000 gun shows in every region of the country. These arms bazaars provide a haven for anyone who wants to take advantage of a loophole in existing federal law and buy and sell guns on a cash-and-carry, no-questions-asked basis.
Since the Brady Law went into effect in 1994, the criminal background checks it requires have prevented more than 1,000,000 attempted gun purchases by felons, fugitives, domestic violence abusers, and other prohibited persons. Requiring these background checks on all gun sales at gun shows will ensure that prohibited purchasers who cannot buy guns at gun shops will not be able to turn to gun shows for their supply.
What is the problem?
Under federal law, anyone who wants to engage in the business of selling firearms must obtain a federal firearms license. The Brady Law requires that when a federal firearms licensee (FFL) wants to sell a firearm, they must contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to ensure that the purchaser is not prohibited from possessing firearms. FFLs must comply with these laws whether they are selling firearms from a gun store or at a gun show.
The Brady Law, however, does not apply to the sale of firearms by non-licensees. Every year, there are thousands of gun sales without background checks by vendors claiming not to need a federal license because they are merely selling from their “personal collection” of guns.[2] Many of these sales take place at gun shows and the problem has become known as the “gun show loophole.”
This loophole makes gun shows attractive sources of guns for criminals, and other prohibited purchasers. They can easily avoid criminal background checks by shopping at gun shows where many sellers are willing to do business with no questions asked. Many unscrupulous gun dealers also exploit this loophole to operate full-fledged businesses without following federal gun laws. A full quarter to half of the vendors at most gun shows do not have licenses and are not required to do background checks.[3] A report by the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”), summarizes the problem:
Gun shows provide a large market where criminals can shop for firearms anonymously. Unlicensed sellers have no way of knowing whether they are selling to a violent felon or someone who intends to illegally traffic guns on the streets to juveniles or gangs. Further, unscrupulous gun dealers can use these free-flowing markets to hide their off-the-book sales. While most gun show sellers are honest and law-abiding, it only takes a few to transfer large numbers of firearms into dangerous hands.[4]
? In 1998 alone, licensed firearms dealers sold an estimated 4.4 million guns, 1.7 million of
which were handguns.[3] Additionally, it is estimated that 1 to 3 million guns change
hands in the secondary market each year, and many of these sales are not regulated.”
First, the “Gun Show Loophole” is hardly a source of weapons used in criminal activity:
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“The Bureau of Justice Statistics report Firearms Use by Offenders finds that only about 1 percent of U.S. crime guns come from gun shows. The BJS study was based on personal interviews with 18,000 prison inmates in 1997, and was the largest such study ever conducted by the federal government. Of course this figure includes all sales at gun shows, including sales by federal firearms licensees. (Since some future criminals have clean or expunged records, they could pass any background check.) The sources of criminal guns were:
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Purchased from a retail store, 8.3 percent.
Purchased at a pawnshop, 3.8 percent.
Purchased at a flea market, 1.0 percent.
Purchased in a gun show, 0.7 percent.
Obtained from friends or family, 39.6 percent.
Got on the street/illegal source, 39.2 percent.”
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http://www.davekopel…
(Kopel’s information came from BJS statistics)
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seven-tenths of one percent does not seem to me to be the major problem in where and how criminals get guns. Getting them from friends or family and Getting them on the street or from an illegal source constitutes eighty percent of the problem. Purchases from retail stores and pawnshops are so restricted (NICS Check REQUIRED!) that the individual could only likely have become a criminal AFTER the purchase, not before!
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Further, the BJS statistics do NOT state whether the armed offense that landed the gun show purchaser in prison was their FIRST such offense. This could make the number purchased by active criminals small indeed! Weapons purchased at Gun SHows are predominantly sold by Licensed dealers possessing a FFA. Private sales at gun shows are an insignificant of the total sales at gun shows, in my experience.
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I have sold three weapons in private sales at gun shows. I have purchased four or five. The guns I bought and sold at gun shows were from/to individuals KNOWN to me, and active in the shooting and hunting sports. I have twice refused to sell to an individual at a gun show because the individual was not known to me. I believe this to be the rule, rather than the exception, and that is borne out by the ectremely small number of guns purchased at gun shows which are later used in a crime.
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Many guns used in crime are stolen in burglaries. I had one stolen from my home about ten years ago; it was my personal carry weapon at the time. Two years later, the police recovered the weapon in an attempted holdup, and it was returned to me.
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Finally, I’d be truly interested in where the “quarter to half” statistic came from. Thanks.
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Best,
CHuck
So this 39.6% of Criminals obtained for a gun from a friend.
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That would imply registering private sales would make sense. As of now a criminal can make a straw purchase and the seller has no downside, he makes $100 for 5mins of work.
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In any event it is interesting our data on guns is so bad we have to interview criminals to find out where the guns came from.
That dirt bag bought the gun at a licensed dealer, not at a gun show!!!
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The problem was that medical records that would have shown this piece of $h!t to be mentally unstable were not included in the background check performed.
The broad issue of the VA Tech shooting highlights a number of problems and ways we could improve the current system.
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Medical records where one problem, but he could have bought his guns through guns shows, or private says as well and the next shooter will unless we improve things.