A new proposal by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) would close the gun show loophole by requiring all sellers of guns for profit to get a Federal Firearms License. This means they would have to conduct background checks on every buyer.
We have until December 7th to comment on this rule change. Do not hesitate: go to https://www.regulations.gov/document/ATF-2023-0002-0001 to read the proposed change, then click on the comment button to tell the ATF you approve.
With the proposed change, anyone who sells guns for profit (including online) would need to get an FFL (federal firearms license). An overwhelming majority (90%) of the American people have been saying for years that they are in favor of universal background checks. This change would go a long way toward making this a reality.
Because of gun shows (like the firearms bazaar at the Pima County Fairgrounds), private sales, and online sales, one in five gun sales today are conducted without a background check. As a result, guns often fall into the wrong hands. See Orgy of Cheap Guns for Sale at Pima Fairgrounds.
The NRA and other gun lobbies are flooding this website with negative comments. Let’s overwhelm them with approval of this common-sense proposal.
Gun shows are a “major trafficking channel”
A study by ATF found that 25% to 50% of gun show vendors are unlicensed. ATF reviewed over 1,500 of its investigations and concluded that gun shows are a “major trafficking channel,” associated with approximately 26,000 firearms diverted from legal to illegal commerce. Gun shows rank second to corrupt dealers as a source for illegally trafficked firearms.
Licensed firearms dealers are required to conduct background checks through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS”) on prospective firearm recipients to prevent prohibited persons from receiving firearms, and to maintain firearms transaction records for crime gun tracing purposes.
The Department of Justice proposes amending ATF regulations to implement the provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (“BSCA”), effective June 25, 2022, that broaden the definition of when a person is considered “engaged in the business” as a dealer in firearms other than a gunsmith or pawnbroker.
The proposed rule also clarifies what it means for a person to be “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms, and to have the intent to “predominantly earn a profit” from the sale or disposition of firearms.
More than 35000 people have been killed in gun violence so far in 2023. This is is an average of almost 118 deaths each day. Of those who died, 1,157 were teens and 246 were children.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I wholeheartedly believe we need much stricter laws, if we, as a country, are allowing guns to be so prevalent. Second Amendment be damned….. when that was written in our Constitution over 200 years ago, our forefathers didn’t know anything beyond a musket, which was used primarily for hunting for food or clothing. So, anything that can limit, or better yet, prohibit, guns in the American society, is huge!
By all means, close the loophole! Stop gun violence!