President wants gun sellers to be licensed perform background checks.
By Becket Adams
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. From the New York Times to the Associated Press news of President Obamas end-run of Congress to make law addressing gun violence resulted in several stories falsely claiming his Executive Actions will do little to regulate gun show and online sales. Journalists covering the executive actions this week revealed their ignorance of existing gun laws as many incorrectly claimed Americans have been using gun shows and the Internet to legally evade federal standards on background checks.
Faced with clear legal limitations on his authority Mr. Obama will take modest steps that stop well short of the kind of large scale changes to the gun trade that he unsuccessfully sought from Congress three years ago the Times reported.
That legislation would have closed loopholes that allow millions of guns to be sold without background checks at gun shows or in online firearm exchanges it added.
The
Associated Press claimed in a breaking news alert: Obama moves to require background checks for guns bought from dealers online at gun shows.
A closer look at current federal law however shows there are significant problems with these assertions.
First federal law requires that licensed dealers perform background checks on all sales regardless of where they occur. It is already illegal for a licensed dealer to sell at a gun show without also performing a background check.
Second licensed dealers can legally sell online but customers must first submit to a background check. Websites that sell guns including Buds Gun Shop Guns America and Gunbroker allow a person to pick out a firearm and pay online but the dealer will not ship the item straight to the customers door.
In order for the transaction to be finalized the buyer must specify a local federal firearms license (FFL) holder to actually receive shipment of the gun Bearing Arms explained.
The seller (a federal firearms licensee) will then ship the sold firearm to the receiving gun dealer (another FFL) not the buyer.
The customer must then go to the receiving FFL fill out all necessary forms required by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms and then pass a check performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Any sale from any licensed dealer first has to go through a background check. It doesnt matter if hes selling the firearm at a store online or at a gun show said Lars Dalseide with the National Rifle Associations Institute for Legislative Action.
When it comes to online sales guns can only be transferred to the buyer through a federally licensed firearms dealer thats the law he added.
Simply put whether its online or brick-and-mortar licensed dealers are already required by law to perform background checks on customers.
Sales conducted by individuals however are a different story. The law doesnt recognize the seller in a single peer-to-peer sale as being a dealer.
So for a
website like Armslist which works like Craigslist in that it merely facilitates meeting between private sellers there is nothing illegal about its members conducting the occasion personal sale. Armslist doesnt carry stock or sell firearms. It only connects individuals.
And this is where the White House wants to take action. Obama and his team want to make sure that anyone who sells a gun is also licensed and performs a background check.
The Washington Free Beacons Stephen Gutowski who is also a firearms instructor explains that
The only thing that matters is who is doing the sale: a licensed dealer or a private individual. This is also why Obamas executive order is big news.
For decades only those who sell firearms as a substantial part of their business were considered in the business.
Under Obamas order almost anybody selling a gun could be considered a dealer & have to get a federal firearms license. A radical change.
But many of these details were lost this week on reporters who appeared genuinely confused as to the finer details of Obamas proposed action.
Quartz claimed this week that the presidents announced executive order would require that gun sellers who operate at gun shows and on the Internet to be licensed and subject them to criminal prosecution that can include up to five years in prison and a $250000 fine if they are not.
The article has since been characterized as the most inaccurate explainer of the decade.
The author should be ashamed said National Reviews Charles C. W. Cooke.
He was not the only one in media who appeared generally disappointed in how the press covered the gun control announcement.
Its time like these where you see highly respected journalists who are regularly very smart become absolutely clueless on firearms said Independent Journals
Joe Perticone.
Real Clear Policys
Robert VerBruggen added in a separate note In fairness to confused journalists though admin did promise action on the gun show loophole and then just restated current law.
T. Becket Adams is a Staff Correspondent for the Washington Examiner.
