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Background checks needed at gun shows (Seattle)
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Background checks needed at gun shows Monday, January 28, 2002SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARDA dangerous dichotomy has developed in the way firearms are sold at gun shows in this state. Licensed firearms dealers who sell pistols, rifles and shotguns at these shows must follow all state and federal laws, including federal background checks on all firearms sales and the five-day waiting period on handgun sales.Unlicensed dealers selling the same firearms must comply with none of those state or federal restrictions.Unless you already have a license to carry a concealed pistol, if you buy a shotgun from a licensed dealer at a gun show, you must pass the background check before he'll hand over the firearm. Buy a pistol from him and even if you do pass the background check, you'll have to wait five days to get it.Even if you don't have a concealed pistol license, if you buy either a shotgun or a pistol from an unlicensed dealer at the same gun show, you can walk out with the firearm as soon as the money changes hands.There is no inherent danger in the second sales scenario. But there is a danger if the purchaser is a felon or a non-citizen or under a court-imposed restraining order or has a history of mental illness, any one of which would prohibit the purchase of a firearm and any one of which would likely turn up on a background check.There is every reason to assume that the vast majority of firearm sales by private, unlicensed dealers at gun shows are to law-abiding citizens.And there is every reason to believe that the gun show system is ripe for exploitation by those legally barred from purchasing a firearm through other means.There is no plausible way to absolutely assure that criminals or the mentally unstable will not be able to purchase firearms. But it makes sense to employ measures to make it more difficult for them to do so. At very least, it makes sense to abandon practices that make it easy to do so.Gun rights lobbyist Joe Waldron, speaking for both the Second Amendment Foundation and the Washington Arms Collectors, which puts on many of the state's gun shows, says they have "no objection in principle" to background checks on unlicensed sales at gun shows. The problems, he says, are in the mechanics.Those mechanics are being massaged in the language of House Bill 2202, whose prime sponsor is Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, and a Senate bill to be sponsored by Majority Leader Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach. The legislation would require uniform background checks and waiting periods on all gun show purchases.The gun-control group Washington CeaseFire has made this bill it's No. 1 legislative priority and is lobbying heavily for its passage. Some of the mechanics at issue are the costs of conducting the background checks and how records of the checks are maintained.Waldron argues that the Brady Act, the federal law that created the national background check requirement, presumed the check to be a public service and assessed no fees for them. Waldron and his organizations want the checks conducted at the public's expense, not that of the dealers or buyers.Waldron also wants state legislation to take the Brady approach to records keeping. Under the Brady Act, records of successful background checks are to be destroyed at some point. Waldron argues that there is little if any public purpose served in keeping a record of a law-abiding citizen passing a background check. It's far more important, he says, to keep track of those who failed the check.The bill may also run into opposition on its relatively low threshold for defining a "gun show" as when three or more people gather to buy and sell more than 10 firearms.Although Waldron is correct that the devil is in the details with this or any other legislation, the bill's premise is solid: Sales of firearms at organized gun shows should not take place without buyers undergoing background checks.For better or for worse, private, non-gun show firearm sales between individuals would not be affected by this legislation. So law-abiding citizens could still purchase firearms in private and, alas, those with criminal intent would still have a way to buy weapons without law enforcement scrutiny. Such is the give-and-take of a democracy.But the passage of this legislation need not "shut down" the state's gun shows, as some opponents contend. About half the dealers at these shows are licensed anyway. Surely the sponsoring organizations can work out a background check system to serve the rest of the dealers. Those who sponsor these shows are by all accounts honest, law-abiding citizens themselves, who would be loath to be party to the sale of a firearm to buyers who are criminals or mentally unqualified to possess them. Background checks will help prevent that from happening. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/56036_gunshowed.shtml
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