‘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.
This is correct. In addition all sales at gun show from a licensed FFL to a customer currently also require a background check. Currently the main two kinds of transfers that don’t require federal background checks nationwide are private party sales and gifts. Eg. Selling your neighbor a shotgun or gifting your dad a hunting rifle. I believe these were both carved out exceptions as a result of the limitations on the Feds due to the commerce clause. Several states have tighter restrictions.
The private sales were excluded because they didn’t want to give access to NICS to just anyone. States with more restrictions require you to pay a dealer or go to the sheriffs office to get approval.
I would expect too that the inability to effectively enforce those expectations was a motivating factor. The last time I bought a gun off some one I don’t know we went to a FFL to comply with state background law. Really only because neither of us knew for sure if the other was a cop. If you know the other person. It can be very hard to prove a transfer ever happen.
That’s an example of a state raising the floor for a personal sale. A good reason (depending on the state) for a current CCW/CHL permit too, as that paired with ID can in some states be sufficient verification without needing to go to an FFL for NICS.
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
I’ve only ever purchased a single gun at a gun show, but they had a big ass table full of guns (and other junk) and I was not subject to a background check. This is definitely going to force more background checks, which is a good thing.
If it’s more than a few guns from a private collection that’s already illegal. The ATF would happily show up and ram the law up their ass if notified.
That’s a pretty significant “if”. This was a gun show in Phoenix 5+ years ago. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it’s unlikely they were openly violating the law at such a large event.
I can’t speak to everywhere or anyone else’s experience, but I’ve got about the same experience as you. The gun shows here tend to have a lot of “private collectors” selling guns. Some are legit private collectors, some should be gun shops but only sell at shows so no one makes them do shit.
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.
Everyone knows that certain gun shows are massive laundering operations for stolen weapons. The FBI has straight up stated that a large number of guns which are used in crimes in the Northeast can be traced back to gun shows in Virginia specifically. If you “look the part” it is trivial to get basically any common enough gun at a gun show just by doing a deal in a parking lot, since it’s completely legal for an FFL to gift any gun to an associate, and completely legal for that associate to sell it to you in the parking lot. Cops literally watch this happen because it is legal.
How long before our corrupt Supreme Court strikes this down?
In before “requiring a trigger pull for every shot infringes on the use of constitutionally protected arms”
It’s hard NOT to think about how they could make it even worse than expected.
They do.
I believe the framing is something like buying locally on armslist.com, where the buyer and seller agree to meet up face-to-face to make the sale. No mailing it.
Reading the article and a few others, this new regulation seems like election year posturing that doesn’t actually change much for the average person. The regulation is expanding who must register as an FFL from “making their livelihood from gun sales” to selling guns “predominantly to derive a profit”. Whatever that means. But it seems like it is specifically meant to exclude the occasional sale by a private person, which means that a private person happening to sell a gun at/near a gunshow or through armslist seems like they are still in the clear.
Where that line is will surely be hashed out in court, but it seems like the simple sale of a single gun from one person to another is unaffected.
I commented elsewhere about this. I’ve always had a background check run whenever I’ve purchased a firearm. If there’s a way to bypass that I don’t know how.
The federal floor is no background check for personal sales. Some states raise that floor in various ways.
If you’re buying online in a way that orders the gun from an FFL, it will, as you probably know require a background check.
This regulation isn’t modifying that anyway.