The following is the analysis and opinion of the writer:
There are a lot of people who are paranoid about the so called “gun show loophole” on private gun sales. People, if it’s built into federal law, then it is not a loophole. It is federal law. Legal gun owners have had the right to buy and sell their guns for more years than most people have been alive. The Brady Bill of 1993 just enforces it.
Speaking of the Brady Bill, we have had mandatory background checks for gun purchases since 1993. Since then, any federally licensed dealer selling any firearm to a legal resident who does not have a CCW (carrying a concealed weapon permit) must complete a background check. That’s the law. Some states, like California, have added teeth to it by mandating background checks on all private sales.
California has also imposed limitations on magazine capacity and banning some guns. Now, with all of this mandated by the state of California, can someone please give me the name of one individual whose life has been saved by this? It can’t be that difficult, can it? Just one name. You can’t do it, can you? That’s because not one life has ever been saved by a background check. So tell me, how can this be common-sense law when it has never worked?
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Ladies and gentlemen, if this was a law that worked, then the shootings at Thousand Oaks, San Bernardino, and Sandy Hook would have never happened. The man who did the shooting at Sandy Hook stole the guns he used. The woman he stole them from bought them legally in accordance with federal law and the laws of the state of Connecticut. Then he killed her with them. By the way, she was his mother.
Bottom line, your so called common-sense laws aren’t. If they don’t save lives, and they don’t, then making them law is a waste of taxpayer money.
As far as private sales go, I very seldom sell a gun. When I do, I always make two hand receipts showing a complete description of the gun — two signatures required, mine and the buyer’s on both receipts. I make sure the buyer is a resident of this state and is of legal age to buy the gun. That would be 18 for a long gun and 21 for a handgun. If the buyer can’t comply with all of that, then no sale is made. That is more than required by federal law. That would be your common-sense law.
Anyone hellbent on committing mass murder will not pay any attention to your so called common-sense laws. If they can’t get a gun, then they will use something else, like a truck. What then, background checks to buy a truck?
Steven Barker is retired from the Air Force and is an NRA-certified instructor.
