The Lie Of A Gun Show Loophole And The Need For UNIVERSAL Background Checks

FEBRUARY 14, 2013 2:31 PM
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When government bureaucrats such as our current president use certain terminology (most all terminology in Obama's case) you really better understand what it means. The call for universal background checks sounds innocuous enough because after all, guns are dangerous things just like cars and a lot of other inanimate objects and we wouldn't want these dangerous weapons getting into the hands of the wrong individuals. Well, apparently some guns have gotten into the hands of the wrong individuals, ergo that's why we have crime.

But who wouldn't want universal background checks? Me for one! Exactly what does the term universal background check mean when it comes from someone as blatantly dishonest as President Obama? If it means running a background check on every single gun sale even those between private sellers in the United States, then I am most definitely against that. What this latest push by the President is about stems from the so-called gun show loophole that is in reality a myth. There is no gun show loophole where weapons are streaming into the hands of criminals. It just doesn't happen.

If you purchase a gun at a gun show, and don't have a concealed carry permit, you get to fill out a nice long form and they check you out. Yes, you get to have a background check run on you. You simply cannot walk into a gun show anywhere in the nation, buy a gun from a licensed dealer and walk out with it unless you have a concealed carry permit. And every licensed firearms dealer in the United States must have a Federal Firearms License to be able to sell guns at a gun show or anywhere else and they must check the background of every firearm purchaser minus those with a permit. And if you are selling guns at a gun show for business purposes and do not have a license, that is a federal offense and it can land you in jail for a very long time.

Then there is the matter of private sellers at gun shows which in reality is not much of a loophole. Private sellers, meaning someone showing up like they do at a flea market selling tools from their garage, are not the ones having caches of AR-15s, AK-47s and large capacity magazines for criminal gangs to come in, buy them up and start wreaking havoc on society.

As much as President Obama and gun control advocates would like you to believe, gun shows are not where criminals get their guns. For individuals who are prosecuted for crimes involving a firearm, only a mere 0.7% of those guns are purchased at a gun show. The vast majority of guns used in gun crimes are bought from the street or an illegal source (39.2%) or they are from a friend or family member (39.6%).

There is simply no getting around the fact that guns used in crimes are obtained illegally an overwhelming majority of time. And when guns purchased at retail stores do end up being used in the commission of a crime, a majority of the original purchasers of those guns have had background checks run on them and those guns have been used by someone other than the purchaser of the gun.Again, you cannot go into any store in this nation and legally purchase a gun from a federally licensed gun dealer and not have a background check run on you.

But, to have true universal background checks would require that if I sold my brother, friend or next door neighbor my own gun, regardless of the circumstances, at a gun show or not, I would need to run a background check on them. I could sell a knife, or a hatchet, or a saw, or a sharp stick to my neighbor, but not a gun if true universal background checks were the law of the land.

The current background check law as already implemented is sufficient. There is no need for what the President has in mind for universal background checks. There is no current legislation that would singularly deal with universal background checks and it is likely President Obama would include a background check measure in a larger piece of legislation which would also ban "military style assault weapons" and magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds.

Barack Obama's push for so-called, "common sense measures" and "universal background checks" is nothing more than a ruse to deflect people from the agenda of more government control and the eventual banning of guns. When the President gets people on his side to help him promote a common sense measure to check the background of people purchasing weapons, misleading them into believing this isn't already happening, he doesn't mention that these so-called sensible measures are part of that larger legislative agenda which not everyone would support.

I do support a background check for all individuals when purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer.I do not support universal background checks for any and all firearm purchases, especially those between friends and family members. That is an abusive, unconstitutional government intrusion in our lives.

The Lie Of A Gun Show Loophole And A Need For UNIVERSAL Background Checks