Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Close the Private Sale Loophole


Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), who was recently selected to head the Democratic National Committee, wants to close this glaring loophole in the gun laws. She is introducing a bill which would require a background check on all gun sales, whether commercial or private. Private gun sellers would have to go to a licensed gun dealer or a law enforcement office and get a background check done before selling any gun to anyone.

This law would not restrict the right of any citizen to lawfully own a firearm, but I'm sure it will probably be opposed by the NRA (since they oppose all gun laws and regulations, whether they would infringe on gun owner's rights or not). But recent polls have shown that most Americans, including most gun owners, would approve of this kind of law. I hope it is able to get past the Republican obstructionists in the House of Representatives.
You know what I say? Let's not stop there. That's only half-way to where we need to be. In addition to background checks on every single gun transfer, no exceptions, we need to license all gun owners and register all guns.

That would be proper gun control. What's your opinion?

Please leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. Any chance of a gun control win here is there.... jadegold?

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  2. I'll answer that. There is a chance indeed. In fact the background check requirement, whether you call it "closing the gun show loophole" or "banning private sales," or any other misleading name, is the most popular and most essential part of gun control reform.

    The weird thing is how strongly the gun crowd protests against it. Are they not law-abiding citizens who would be minimally affected? Why all the opposition?

    ReplyDelete