Ian wrote:Seth, I couldn't help noticing that in your response you ducked the issue of background checks: y'know, the entire point of the post that you responded to?
Something to chew on:
Illegal purchases at gun shows have replaced theft as criminals' preferred method of obtaining firearms.
http://www.vpc.org/studies/tupfour.htm
Ninety-something percent of the public favors 100% background checks on all weapons sold. Three-quarters of NRA members favor it as well. The NRA leadership does not. Where do you stand? I suspect it is actually with the majority of the public - in which case you are, indeed, in favor of more restrictions (quite a bit more, considering 40% of all guns sold in the US require no background checks), despite having claimed that you are in favor of fewer restrictions.
Something else to ponder: why do you suppose the NRA leadership likes to keep this rather huge loophole open? Is it ideology, or because they know which side their bread is buttered on?
Wrong. Nothing coming from the VPC can be considered reliable. Fact is that 0.7% of criminals surveyed obtained their weapons from gun shows.
And I said I favor a
background check system. What we have now is
not a background check system, it is a covert and illegal collection of gun registration data that Congress has specifically forbidden.
Yes, the buyer's background gets checked, but the serial number and other information about the firearm, along with the information about the buyer is taken and entered into the system. This links the firearm to the individual and the individual to the information on address and other data collected. This is gun registration. Anyone that thinks the BATFE is not secreting these records away ILLEGALLY in a covert database in direct defiance of Congress needs to go do some research and discover that they've been caught doing so several times, and always have some excuse ("Oh, we didn't know we couldn't keep the data for auditing the operation of the programs...", "We HAVE to keep the records so we can properly audit the system..." etc.) for violating federal law.
A
background check only system would be a) available to any member of the public free of charge who wishes to sell a firearm; b) would intake ONLY information on the buyer sufficient to run an FBI NCIC criminal history check; c) would require NO information from the seller; c) would require NO information on the firearm being transferred; and d) would be automatically waived if the approval or denial takes more than three minutes.
There is no reason whatsoever to restrict such checks to licensed FFL dealers other than to put them on the hook if the applicant is disqualified or uses false identification and to funnel all transactions through FFL dealers to facilitate the collection of gun registration data (Form 4473) which the dealer is REQUIRED to keep forever, and allow the BATFE to rifle through at will for "gun traces."
Moreover, the law does not COMPEL an FFL to run the check for non-customers, and many, if not most FFL's WILL NOT DO SO, nor will they process outside out of state transfers because of the paperwork burden and the liability that attaches.
This makes the current system an effective means of (theoretically) preventing private transfers because there is no legal way for private individuals to make a transfer if there is no convenient FFL willing to cooperate.
If the system were configured to do what the gun-banners SAY they want it to do (keep the guns out of the hands of criminals) then it would be a convenient minutes-long phone conversation that anyone can use to ensure they aren't selling to a criminal.
But that's NOT what the gun banner's agenda actually is. It's transparently clear that they are trying to move the NICS system towards universal gun REGISTRATION, which is always a prelude to gun confiscations and bans.
That I will not tolerate, so no, I do not support background checks, as the NICS system currently operates, for private sales of firearms. If that means that criminals get ahold of guns, so be it, the blame lies with the gun banners who are being duplicitous and dishonest in their intentions and who refuse to agree to a system that CANNOT be used as a covert tool for universal firearms registration.
If the gun banners want to be honest and try to achieve the legitimate goal of reducing the ability of criminals to get firearms illegally without using it as a Trojan horse for gun registration and bans, I'm willing to cooperate fully.
"Seth is Grandmaster Zen Troll who trains his victims to troll themselves every time they think of him" Robert_S
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
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