Slippery slope.
They passed UBCs here in New York in 2013. No big deal, right? Just a $10 background check fee if you can find a nearby dealer that will do it for that state-mandated maximum. Many won't, because it's just not worth their time. The law can't force them to do it.
So you look around for a dealer who will, and you end up having to drive an hour or more to do it. Or you go back to the nearby guy, and end up paying his regular background-check fee of $35, or $40, or $50 plus tax. Suddenly that old .22 rifle that your neighbor wanted to sell you for $75 is not so great a deal. But you did your part to make NY safer, right?
Not really. The gangbangers will continue to get their illegal guns through the black market. Spree killers will obtain their weapons legally, because for the most part they're off the legal radar until they launch their murderous schemes. Some sales will be prevented, but eventually shady people will find other avenues to get their weapons.
When these bills passed legislature in 2013, some legislators triumphantly proclaimed that "This is only the beginning." When UBCs fail to have an impact on crime rates, they'll want something else. Who knows what that will be?
Universal background checks stopped some 6,590 people in Colorado from buying guns last year and also resulted in the arrests of 227 fugitives.
Well, if you fail the background check, then you must have lied on the Form 4473, which quite explicitly asks for a
Yes or
No answer on all the disqualifiers. Lying on the form is a crime. Why, then, were there not 6,590 arrests?
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