Ex-gun Show Operator Trains Sights On 'Loophole'

Bob Pope is a gun-packing Republican. The sixth-generation Tennessean is a Newt Gingrich-supporting Second Amendment advocate who ran gun shows for 25 years. What makes him different from other Second Amendment supporters?

He admits that the gun show loophole exists!

“If I was going to buy an illegal gun, I’d go to a gun show and buy it,” said Pope. “I started doing gun shows in 1983, sold out in 2008. I saw the gun shows change, really not for the good.”

The three-day shows, held at expos and fairgrounds, allow dealers and individuals to buy, sell and trade guns.

“Currently, I would estimate, on the low side, there are over 100 gun shows across the state of Tennessee every year,” Pope said. “On the low side, there are 1,000 guns without any records sold at every show, every day.”

There’s no way to prove that, because statistics on those sales don’t exist.

Licensed dealers are allowed to buy and sell at the shows. If you buy a gun from them, they run a check with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to make sure that you are at least 18 and not a felon, and that the gun was not stolen. This costs the buyer $10.

But if an individual sells a gun to a buyer at a gun show, there are no checks. That’s the loophole Pope wants changed. Every gun sale at a show should require the duel TBI check, he says.

Pope says the system allows people who break into houses and steal guns to easily resell them. It allows felons to buy guns.

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