Sen.
Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., right, accompanied by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.,
announce April 10 a bipartisan deal on expanding background checks to
more gun buyers.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)
USA Today reports with video
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., announced a compromise bill Wednesday that would expand background checks for gun buyers, possibly paving the way for votes this week on a key piece of legislation aimed at reducing gun violence.
They announced the deal as the Senate gets ready for its most intense debate on gun control since 1994.
"I don't consider criminal background checks to be gun control. It's just common sense," Toomey said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "If you pass ... you get to buy a gun. It's the people who fail that we don't want having guns."
The deal would expand background checks to purchases made at gun shows and online sales of firearms. It would impose penalties on states that do not add records of felons and the mentally ill to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The agreement would not require private citizens to keep records of gun sales. It would specifically ban "the federal government from creating a national firearms registry" — a key sticking point for the pro-gun rights community.
Funny. I bought a shotgun online last year. They shipped it to a dealer and I had to fill out the paperwork for a background check. And wait until the background check cleared before I could take the shotgun. Could someone please tell me where I can buy a gun online without having to get a background check? I thought the law already required any firearms be shipped to FFL dealers and a check be performed.
ReplyDeleteIf private sales between two individuals are allowed, wouldn't they be allowed over the internet too? Does it matter if buyer and seller meet in the local gin mill or in a chat room?
DeleteThis is a situation that is constantly misrepresented as a huge loophole, as if buying online gets you around all background checks.
DeleteIn reality, as you note, a private person to person sale can occur whether the buyer and seller meet online or in person. The sales like this usually happen through classified ads, just as they have in newspapers for decades. Of course--buyer and seller must be from the same state, or they have to bring an FFL into the deal to receive the interstate transfer and run a check.
That is what happens with all of your sites like GunBroker where people buy and sell guns across the country--the gun is shipped to an FFL who charges a fee (in addition to the Background check fee) to receive the gun and make the final transfer.
This is why we roll our eyes at the media's pearl clutching over internet sales--all they have done is make classified style buying and selling a little cheaper and easier.
"On the internet" or "at a gunshow," it's the same damn thing. The licensed guys have to do a background check the private sellers don't. That's what needs to change - among other things.
DeleteThe licensed guys have to do a background check the private sellers don't. That's what needs to change - among other things.
DeleteBreakthrough!!! You are precisely right, Mikeb! It most certainly does need to change.
No background checks for licensed dealers, either.
Consistent, fair, and Constitutional.
I'm so very proud of you, Mikeb!
Exactly, this is all just to make buying a firearm more expensive and the process convoluted, how are you going to process a background check over the internet, Both Manchin, and Toomey will never be reelected to public office again....
ReplyDeleteWell, I can still dream of "gibbet ornament" becoming an elected public office ;-).
DeleteWe have our own RINO that needs to be primaried out of office. I'm speaking of Lindsey 'Amnesty' Graham.
ReplyDeleteMikeb, Schumer's bill would have criminalized a lot of activity that isn't an actual transfer of ownership. See, if your side would agree to a rational system, we could make a deal. Here's my proposed system:
ReplyDelete1. People who are found guilty of a felony or violent crime and those adjudicated a danger to society due to mental illness are put on a database.
2. If an owner wants to sell a gun, the owner calls the database and hands the phone to the potential buyer. The buyer gives his or her social security number and hands the phone back to the seller. The database operator issues a go/no go statement.
3. No serial number from the gun is mentioned, and no record is made. If you insist, a ticket is mailed to the seller to verify the result of the background check, but all government records must be destroyed within a day.
What's wrong with that? It satisfies your desire to have prohibited persons restricted from legally buying guns, and it satisfies our insistence that no registry is made.