Why we can't close the "gun show loophole"

April 12, 7:23 PMDenver Gun Rights ExaminerDan Bidstrup

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What is the gun show loophole?  It is the ability of a person to buy a gun from another attendee at the show, person to person, with no Instacheck to see if the buyer is a felon, or for any other reason should not be able to have a gun.  If a person buys a gun from a Federal Fire Arms licensed dealer at the show, they must show ID and get the InstaCheck.  On it's surface, this seems like a bad thing.  The ABC television show 20/20 last Friday documented the ease with which a man bought lots of guns with $5,000 cash and filled the trunk of his car.  Who is such a rabid gun nut that they wouldn't want to close the "gun show loophole"? 

Buying guns at a gun show, man to man, is no different than me selling my neighbor a gun after we wrap up a practice session at the local pistol range. A gun show is a concentrated marketplace where buyers and sellers gather, but the principle that I can buy or sell something that is legal to own applies at a gun show or over my back fence. It is currently illegal to sell a gun to a minor, a felon, or someone under a restraining order.  There are other laws state by state, but those are the biggies.  It is illegal to use that gun in lots and lots of ways by anyone.  I am told that there are currently about 20,000 laws currently on the books dealing with what we can and can not do with our guns.  Right now, we can still buy or sell a gun to someone as long as it is a legal weapon and we observe the laws currently on the books in the state where we do the transaction.

Consider what must be done to close the "Gun Show Loophole":

• Everyone who owns guns or wants to buy a gun would have to be background checked, then entered into a Federal database, earning them a gun owner's permit or license
• To stay current, these licenses could only be good or a year or two at a time, as circumstances change
• Every gun currently in the United States would need to be inventoried, ID'd by serial number and registered to its present owner
• Every gun entering the country or manufactured here would have to be ID'd and its sale registered to its new owner, and recorded in a federal database
• Every year, you would have to bring your inventory down to the police station, or have a police officer come to your house and inventory your collection to see if there is any change
• If you wanted to sell your old .38 revolver to your neighbor, you and he would have to truck on down to the closest FFL dealer and pay some fee to get your neighbor Instachecked, then you and he would have to go to the local police station to make sure their records show the transfer so you stay legal for next year's inventory.

Hey, that sounds just like Representative Bobby Rush's bill, HR45!  Remember I told you to write your congressmen and women about killing that bill?  I also asked you to write the representatives on the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terror and Homeland Security, asking them to never let that bill out of committee.  Do it.  Do it now!