Just stroll down the aisles at one of the state's scores of gun shows, and look for the dealers displaying signs that read: "No Background Checks."
For three years running, the gun lobby and its allies in the Virginia legislature have defeated bills to close a loophole that waives background checks for firearm purchases from unlicensed dealers, who typically peddle their wares at gun shows.
THe people that write these anti gun articles are either idiots, or they think the people that read them are. If they are unlicensed dealers then they are breaking the law to begin with because in order to be a dealer or be in the business of selling firearms you need a federal license.
For the pro-gun crowd, background checks are just too arduous to impose on unlicensed dealers. In fact, they typically take less than a minute or two and, in nine cases out of 10, involve only a single phone call. Background checks are an inconvenience only to those who pose a threat of violence and cannot purchase firearms legally.
Only federally licenced dealers can make that phone call to the National Instant Check System. It would take a major change in federal law and millions of dollars increasing the size of NICS to handle the new way of checking for non-licensees. Also the author forgot to mention that a nice long form has to be filled out and the person calling it in has to make sure it is filled out properly....which is one reason why they make sure people are licensed in the first place.
The author is woefully dishonest.....as many antis that want use hyperbole and hysteria inducing tactics are.
Seung Hui Cho, the student who killed 32 people and himself last spring at Virginia Tech, was able to buy firearms from licensed dealers because authorities had not entered information about his mental illness into the federal database used for instant records checks. Shortly after the shootings, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine closed that loophole by executive order, and the General Assembly is likely to codify his ruling. But why would it leave open another, much larger loophole that would enable a future deranged killer to buy firearms so easily?
The crazy nutjob Ted Kazcynski (the Unabomber) made his own handgun.... and so can anyone.
http://www.thehomegunsmith.com/introduction.shtml
Making residents at gun shows selling their few personal guns go through the process of filling out the forms and go through the process is just a ruse by the antis to make it harder for the law abiding gun owners to acquire and sell their guns and that is the only real reason for this. They want to reduce lawful gun ownership by making it too much of a hassle for people to own, buy and possess their guns. It is definitley not to solve some problem because something like less than one percent of criminals caught possessing a gun bought it at a gun show and that percentage number includes people that would have passed a background check because they had no prior convictions.
Fifteen other states, including Maryland, have closed this loophole; Virginia should, too.
Actually, in Maryland I can buy a long gun at a gun show from another resident just like I can from my neighbor with no restrictions. But what I cannot do is buy a handgun from my neighbor without us both taking a day off work, travelling to a Maryland State Police barracks, fill out a really long form, pay a fee, wait seven days and then pick up the handgun.......that is what the antis really want and the "gun show loophole" is just a strawman to make it a pain in the ass for everyone in a gun show or not to have to go through in order to own another handgun.
