‘Historic’ action by justice department closes ‘doggone dangerous’ loophole in Biden administration’s fight against gun violence
The sale of firearms on the internet and at gun shows in the US will in future be subject to mandatory background checks, the justice department said on Thursday as it announced a “historic” new action to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.
The closing of the so-called gun show loophole, which exempts private transactions from restrictions that apply to licensed dealers, has long been a goal of the Biden administration, and is specifically targeted in the rule published in the federal register today.
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The White House estimates that 22% of guns owned by Americans were acquired without a background check and that about 23,000 more individuals will be required to be licensed as a dealer after the rule’s implementation.
I thought online gun sales already required a background check, isn’t that why they have to be shipped to an FFL? So that they can run a background check before ownership is transferred to you.
Yep.
Even the “gun show” part isn’t doing a lot, anyone that pays for a table is likely to make you do a background check anyways, because they are an FFL.
This does nothing about the actual problem.
“Private” sales which are done in the parking lot of gun shows.
It’s just some bullshit before an election so Biden can say he’s done something about the gun violence pandemic
It’s just some bullshit before an election so Biden can say he’s done something about the gun violence pandemic
Yeah, I’m noticing a lot of posturing from the democrats this year.
It’s always funny when a common sense comment gets massive down votes just because at the very end I put something about how Dems aren’t doing as much as they need to.
It seems like this has less to do with where (gunshow) or how (internet) the guns are being sold, and more about the volume being moved.
The “loopholes” are still intact for the private person making an occasional sale. These regulations are looking at people selling, in any way, guns in volumes that the government feels should be regulated as an FFL.
Unsurprisingly, the article’s title and the general framing leads people to focus away from what the regulation is actually doing. It’s a story and a political move that manages to bring out the emotion in both pro and anti gun people, but where the change to the legal reality seems honestly boring.
The occasional private party sale from a “personal collection” isn’t what this is designed to stop. It’s intended to close the loopholes that required no background checks in certain transactions, which:
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Allowed people to function like online dealers, buying and selling volumes of guns, but claiming they are selling from personal collections.
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Allowed for the very common “gun shows,” which are frequent and widespread, to be used by #1 to sell guns to people in person not just online but to large, interested, and gathered crowds of people. These things are basically pop-up malls for guns, with a mixture of legitimate firearm businesses running background checks and tables of guns from a “private collection.”
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It prevents the “fire-sale loophole,” where gun stores, often ones that lose their license for other violations, close their business and liquidate their guns at steep discounts without background checks by claiming that the guns revert to private collection.
The purpose of this rule revision is to get rid of those loopholes, which is how the overwhelming majority of guns sold without background check happen.
The occasional sale between private parties from a personal collection, defined as a collection whose purpose is study, comparison, exhibition, or in pursuit of hobby like hunting and sport shooting isn’t the issue here. That doesn’t appear to be where most guns involved in crime that were purchased without a background check originate from.
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The rule, which clarifies who is considered to be “engaged in the business” as a firearms dealer, will take effect in 30 days’ time, and follows a three-month consultation period that attracted almost 388,000 comments to the website of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
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I mean, it’s better than nothing, but still doesn’t do anything about the people outside the gun show with a trunk full of Glocks they’re selling for $100 over sticker price.
If a gun show table was for a store, they always had you do a background check.
This is a huge loophole, but this isn’t fixing it.
Hell, we don’t even enforce straw purchase laws when it involves a minor, moving the guns over state ligns, and murdering multiple people…
Even when the illegal buyer testifies on the stand that he intentionally planned and completed a straw our hase to illegally gain possession of a gun.
All the laws in the world don’t matter if no one enforced them.
We need a background check on every sale, and to prosecute people for flagrantly breaking gun laws.
Can you enforce a background check on every sale without a national gun registry?
Even without a registry, that makes selling it without a check a clear crime.
Now as long as the seller “doesn’t know” the buyer can’t pass a background, that gives them plausible deniability. Which has the unintended effect of sellers not even asking the name of the buyer.
If every “private seller” knew they were breaking the law, and there was a good chance they’d be prosecuted if caught, they’d be a lot more likely to follow the law and go thru a FFL.
We don’t need to only do something that works 100% of the time, working 90% is still pretty good too…
