Pima Supervisors Endorse Background Checks in Gun Sales

The Pima County Supervisors passed a resolution on Dec. 17 in favor of universal background checks in all gun sales. The Board called for the US Senate and President Trump to approve a US House of Representatives bill requiring background checks of private firearms sales, including at gun shows and over the internet.

The move was strongly backed by Citizens for a Safer Pima County, whose members held a press conference prior to the vote. A red-shirted contingent of Moms Demand Gun Sense was prominent among the nearly 50 gun safety advocates.

Speakers at the press conference included:

• Former Congressman Ron Barber
• Rex Scott, Democratic candidate for Pima Supervisor
• “Moms” leader Pam Simon
• Gun safety advocate Molly McKasson
• Mass shooting survivor Nancy Bowman
• Stephanie Hamilton, Democratic candidate for LD10 House.

Barber is a survivor of Tucson’s January 8, 2011, mass shooting where Gabby Giffords was shot. “We have banded together to make sure that we have common-sense gun laws passed,” he said. “Background checks are the foundation on which we build better common-sense gun laws. This is a matter of life and death. We are going to be successful. This is going to happen. It’s just a matter of people power and convincing members of Congress that the lives of American People are more important than their re-election.”

Ironically, the Supervisors have no way to enforce the background check resolution because of state law — A.R.S. § 13-3108(A) — which forbids them from regulating the notorious gun show at the Pima County Fairgrounds.

A black market of guns

The Pima Fairgrounds gun show is widely known as a black market where convicted felons, domestic abusers and people who have failed a background check can easily get guns for cash. See: Orgy of Cheap Guns for Sale at Pima Fairgrounds. Prohibited persons buy guns from unlicensed dealers, who make up one-third of all gun show sellers, without a request for an ID or a background check.

To make matters worse, the gun show operators are convicted felons themselves. For the details, read Convicted Gun Felons Run the Pima County Gun Show.

The resolution cites shocking statistics about gun violence:

• The use of firearms takes the lives of 36,000 people each year in the United States, an average of nearly 100 victims of gun violence per day.
• Shootings account for another 100,000 injuries each year, many of them devastating and life-changing.
• The carnage of firearms use in this country is growing – up 16 percent from 2014 to 2017 when a record 39,773 persons perished from gunshots, and

Supervisors Richard Elias (chairman), Ramon Valadez and Sharon Bronson (all Democrats) voted in favor of the resolution. Republicans Ally Miller and Steve Christy voted no.

At one point Christy began to rant about the state legislature and the history of the gun show, when Chairman Elias shut him down, saying, “This is exactly the kind of smokescreen and crazy arguments we hear across the country. This is a tangent about other things. We have to do something and make a difference.”

Separately, Supervisors Valdez and Bronson wrote a joint letter to Pima County’s congress members and senators, saying, “Over a third of states require some form of universal background checks or private and gun show firearm purchases, but Arizona has no such requirement. Accordingly, we support common sense background check legislation that is simple, convenient and does not create any new restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.”

In the press conference, Rex Scott said, “Make no mistake, this is a public health and safety issue of the highest import. Anytime one of these gun shows is permitted to be held, there is a chance that someone who shouldn’t have possession of a dangerous weapon will be able to purchase one.”

“There should no longer be any gun shows allowed at our fairgrounds unless and until it can be certified that all sales at any fairgrounds gun show are made only by Federal Firearms License holders [who must conduct background checks]. The citizens of Pima County should not be aiding and abetting the furtherance of the “gun show loophole,” he said.