GUNS FOR SALE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED
Anyone in the United States who purchases a firearm must undergo a criminal background check, right?
WRONG
Anyone in the United States who purchases a handgun must undergo a criminal background check, right?
WRONG
The reality: Only retail gun shops, required to have Federal Firearms Licenses (FFL), are required to do background checks on handgun purchases. And although most new firearms are purchased from FFLs, up to 50% of handgun transfers occur through the unregulated secondary market.
Gun shows range from small flea markets with a handful of tables to enormous extravaganzas with hundred of exhibitors. Over 100,000 firearms are sold at the 4,000 gun shows held in this country annually. And while FFLs who participate in gun shows must perform background checks as they would in their stores, private dealers, hobbyists and virtually any individual can sell any manner of firearm at gun shows with virtually no questions asked.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) ranks gun shows as the second leading source of illegal guns recovered by federal law enforcement. According to the 1999 ATF report Gun Shows: Brady Checks and Crime Gun Traces, "gun shows provide a forum for illegal firarms sales and trafficking."
Guns shows are not subject to federal regulations and more than half of the states fail to regulate gun show operations in any way. States that have closed the gun show loophole and required background checks at gun shows have effectively thwarted criminals, and those that have not continue to attract illegal gun runners.
The two teens involved in the Columbine shooting acquired their firearms from a gun show. In the words of Robin Anderson, the 18-year-old who purchased the firarms for her classmates, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, "I didn't want my name on something that I wasn't going to have control of. If I had had to fill out paperwork with a private dealer I would not have done it."
Opponents of closing the gun show loophole have argued that requiring background checks would put gun shows out of business due to lengthy and time-consuming processes that could take days to complete. According to a March, 2000 U.S. Department of Justice report, 95% of background checks are completed within two hours, and 96.5% are completed within 24 hours. Background checks that take longer than 24 hours to complete are 20 times more likely to uncover a prohibited buyer.
We can close the gun show loophole on a national level, but it will take political will.