Study finds vast online marketplace for guns without background checks

[BainsBane]

This study shows that the NRA are their allies are not being truthful when they say most online sales go through authorized gun dealers and are therefore subject to background checks. Most are sold through classifieds and undergo no background checks. Contact your elected representatives to tell them this must change. Tell them you want a universal background check bill.

The study focused on Armslist.com — a popular classified site similar to Craigslist.org that facilitates private sales of firearms and ammunition based on location — and analyzed listings in 10 states where senators voted against a background-check compromise this spring.

At any given time, more than 15,000 guns were for sale in those states, according to the study, and more than 5,000 of them were semi-automatic weapons. Nearly 2,000 ads were from prospective buyers asking to purchase specifically from private sellers, where no background checks are required.

“At this point, this is the biggest loophole in the background check system,” said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy and politics at Third Way, an organization that has been active in the gun-control movement for years.

Background checks — designed to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons, domestic violence perpetrators or the severely mentally ill — are mandatory for gun sales at retail stores, but not at gun shows or for private sales, such as between neighbors and family members or between individuals online.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-study-finds-vast-online-marketplace-for-guns-without-background-checks/2013/08/05/19809198-fd73-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html

[billh58]

1. According to

DU's very own Gungeoneers, there is no Internet or gun show "loophole." Not only should all gun sales be subject to a thorough background check and a mandatory waiting period, but registration (including transfers) should be mandatory as well.

These measures work well here in Hawaii, and we have the lowest gun death rate in the nation.

[BainsBane]

2. Ideally sure

But registration can't pass anytime soon. I say we focus on universal background checks.

[billh58]

3. I agree, and I'll

take what we can get at this point, but the "confiscation" paranoia about registration is assinine.

[BainsBane]

4. No question about it

but gun advocates are by nature paranoid, don't you think? That they are so afraid of life they are compelled to carry guns all the time indicates to me that something is wrong.

[billh58]

6. Anyone who

actually believes that civilians (non-LEOs) carrying a gun in public is civilized social behavior is far beyond paranoid -- they are social misfits and wannabe vigilantes.

The adoration of guns, and the justification of the "recreational use" of guns as a family activity is very telling as well, and sends a message of aggressiveness to their children. This NRA-sponsored and promoted activity is very much like the KKK members who teach their children that violence against other races and religions is acceptable.

Guns have one purpose only, and that is to kill. All other uses of guns are to gain proficiency in killing with a lethal weapon from a distance.

[spin]

7. I'm a strong gun rights supporter and I support universal background checks. ...

At this time I have my own requirements that a buyer has to meet before I will sell him one of my firearms.

1) He has to be a Florida resident.

2) I have to personally have known the buyer for a long enough period of time to form a judgment on his personality and mental stability.

3) He has to have a valid Florida Concealed Weapons Permit.

Universal background checks would make it much easier to sell my firearms as they would eliminate my requirement that the buyer have a carry permit.

[CTyankee]

5. OK, where are our "sensible gun safety regulation" gun owners?

Hello? Anybody out there? Anybody? Hello?

[billh58]

10. They must be

rehearsing their lines for the next wave of "sanitized" NRA propaganda.

[GP6971]

11. Not a peep

I wonder why?

[billh58]

14. Their handlers sent a few

of them over to join in after they rehearsed their "we're really on your side" lines.

[Kingofalldems]

8. There is no loophole!!!11!!

[rdharma]

9. You forgot this in your post above.......

[ileus]

12. never been there before

Not as good as my Va facebook gun list groups but still worth browsing around.

[tumtum]

13. All firearms sales,

be they internet, private seller, whatever, should require a background check, preferably through a Federal Firearms Dealer.

I'm also on board with registration as long as safeguards with teeth against abuse by the govt. are enacted, and, why not a national firearms ID, like the Illinois Firearms Owner ID?

These measures, along with changes in social behavior, would go a long ways to further reducing the firearms violence in this country.

[SQUEE]

16. I agreee on a national FOID like card, renewed annually with a NICS check

As for registration of individual fire arms, I don't trust that info being out in the wild.
I could even get behind a tiered ownership tied to accredited, non NRA based training programs. Far too many people with highly lethal weapons out there with a wink and a nod type training. Most of the "training" that occurs in a CCW class is legalese, and what to say in event of a shooting, no skills training, no escalation of force continuum education and a healthy dose of NRA propaganda.
And a huge one for me is REQUIRED proper storage requirements, with aggressive prosecution of owners when a weapon is improperly, and unsafely kept that results in injury or death.
I would prefer this happen as a cultural and societal paradigm shift but am not completely against state regulations and laws that address this.

[ellisonz]

15. Online Gun Bazaar!

I'm shocked