WASHINGTON - The marketplace for firearms on the Internet, where buyers are not required to undergo background checks, is so vast that advocates for stricter regulations now consider online sales a greater threat than the gun-show loophole.
A new study by Third Way, a centrist think tank with close ties to the Obama administration, found that thousands of guns, including so-called assault weapons, are for sale online and that many prospective buyers were shopping online specifically to avoid background checks.
The study focused on Armslist.com (www.armslist.com) - a popular classified site similar to Craigslist that facilitates private sales of firearms and ammunition based on location - and analyzed listings in 10 states where senators voted against a background-checks compromise this spring.
At any given time, more than 15,000 guns were for sale in those states, according to the study, and more than 5,000 of them were semi-automatic weapons.
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Nearly 2,000 ads were from prospective buyers asking to buy specifically from private sellers, where no background checks are required.
"At this point, this is the biggest loophole in the background-check system," said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy and politics at Third Way.
Background checks - designed to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons, domestic-violence perpetrators or the severely mentally ill - are mandatory for gun sales at retail stores but not at gun shows or for private sales, such as between neighbors and family members.
The National Rifle Association and other gun-rights supporters have advocated against expanding the background-check system because, saying doing so will not stop society's most dangerous people from procuring weapons and eventually will lead to even stricter gun regulations, including a federal registry.
But gun-control advocates have long prioritized closing the gun-show loophole, arguing that is where people seeking to avoid background checks buy their firearms. Hatalsky noted that 17 states have closed the gun-show loophole in their states.
But online, she said, "nobody's monitoring this. Nobody has any ability to stop these people who are looking for private sellers - and the only reason to do that is to evade the background-check system."
