The mythical gun-show loophole

The rumor mill is filled with expectation that Obama is on the verge of expanding gun restrictions through executive action. The specific rumor is that background checks will be expanded and the "gun-show loophole" will be closed. This post is a public service bulletin for those that may not be aware that there is not, and never has been, a "gun-show loophole". The federal gun transfer rules apply at gun-shows just as they apply every where else in the United States.

FBI director Comey displayed an unacceptable level of ignorance in a committee hearing yesterday when he illustrated that he did not know how internet firearms sales are transacted. Whether the gun is sold at a store, at a gun-show, or over the internet, legal firearm transfers of new firearms always involve a face-to-face, in-person transaction with a federally licensed firearms dealer and a background check before a purchaser may take possession of the registered firearm. There is no exception to this requirement.

When anti-gun activists and politicians talk about ending the "gun-show loophole" they are talking about ending the private transfer of second-hand personal firearms without the involvement of a federally licensed firearms dealer to run a background check, and register the firearm. To sell a gun under the new restrictions the owner of a used personal firearm would be required to meet the purchaser at a gun shop and pay a transaction fee to sell the firearm. The purchaser would have to pass a background check and register the used firearm with the federal government.

Ending the "gun-show loophole" will also limit the ability of family members to legally transfer firearms to each other without registering them. In that case, the old deer rifle that grandpa gives you as a Christmas present wouldn't be yours until you pass the background check and get it registered. Ending the "loop-hole" guarantees that all legally owned firearms in the United States are registered with the federal government within a generation - and that's the whole point.

Anti-gun politicians have been wanting to register America's guns for years. This is nothing more than a tricky, and less politically risky, way to do it. Support for the end of the mythical gun-show loophole is support for the creation of a national gun registry of all legally owned firearms. Of course it's all unconstitutional, but that's not much of a barrier for this administration.