April 20 will mark 25 years since two students shot up Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 12 students and a teacher. Three of the four guns they used were purchased by a friend, who bought them from a private seller at a gun show so they wouldn’t be subject to a federal background check.
There have been more than 300 fatal shootings at US schools since then, and counting. To be sure, most have involved guns that were purchased legally, with background check and all, often by people who were “responsible gun owners” until they weren’t anymore.
Democrats have been trying to close that “gun show loophole” for years and years, and following the horrific May 2022 school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, Congress passed a modest gun reform bill that finally required broader background checks on firearms sales, although the shooter at Uvalde had purchased his gun legally. Today, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is publishing a rule in the Federal Register that will put that legislation into action, requiring a broader range of gun sales be subjected to federal background checks.
In a phone call with reporters, Vice President Kamala Harris said,
“Every person in our nation has a right to live free from the horror of gun violence. I do believe that. […] We know how to prevent these tragedies, and it is a false choice to say you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away.”
As the Washington Post explains (gift link), the “gun show loophole” isn’t only a problem stemming from private sellers at gun shows, but also in other venues, like online sales and flea markets. Firearm dealers whose “main livelihood” is selling firearms already need a Federal Firearms License (FFL), and must run background checks whether they’re selling their bad goods at a gun show or at their regular brick-n-mortar gun stores or gun boutiques or gun ice-cream parlors.
But people who claim that selling firearms is not their main source of income — such as people who sell guns at shows or in other more informal settings — have been exempt from such licensing rules. The 2022 law aimed to change that by saying that many more categories of people selling guns to earn money must register for a license and, as a result, record gun purchases and conduct the background checks that come with having that license.
The rules require anyone who sells a firearm through mail order or at flea markets, gun shows or online to register for a license and conduct the necessary background checks.
There are still some exceptions, for gun collecting hobbyists selling part of their collection, or for people who sell guns they inherited. But no, you can’t claim to be a collector who’s selling off a truckload from your hobby every few weeks. The rule pretty narrowly defines what counts as a “personal collection.”
In addition to noting that it’s been nearly 25 years since Columbine, Harris reminded reporters that in 2019, a man in Texas killed seven people and wounded dozens in mass shootings in Midland and Odessa. As the White House announcement of the new ATF rule notes,
The shooter had previously tried to purchase a gun from a sporting goods store but was stopped by a background check because of his mental health history. He was ultimately able to purchase an AR-15 assault-style rifle without a background check from an unlicensed seller he met online.
So yes, background checks can keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous people, and widening the range of sales subject to background checks will as well.
The Justice Department estimates that in addition to the 80,000 licensed firearms dealers in the US, there are another 20,000 unlicensed dealers who sell guns but haven’t been required until now to get a license and to perform background checks.
That’s a big concern, since such unlicensed dealers are responsible for the majority of illegal gun trafficking in the country. Again, from the White House announcement:
In an assessment of its gun trafficking investigations from 2017 to 2021, ATF identified sales by unlicensed dealers as the most frequently used gun trafficking channel. Moreover, unlicensed dealers were the source of more than half of the firearms identified as having been trafficked during the five-year study period—a total of more than 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms.
What’s more, the administration says about 22 percent of American gun owners obtained their firearms without a background check, which includes gun sales before background checks became mandatory for dealers in 1998, as well as private transfers, gifts, and sales by unlicensed dealers, which now will require background checks at least.
The new rule went through the standard federal rulemaking procedure, including 90 days of public comments, WaPo notes:
Officials said they received nearly 400,000 comments, two-thirds of which were clearly in favor of the rules. A quarter of the comments were decidedly against the proposal, the officials said, and other comments did not take a clear stance on the rules.
The new rules will go into effect in 30 days, and of course the Usual Suspects will probably sue over them. No telling whether the Supreme Court will decide; it’s been on a Guns Everywhere kick lately, so for all we know it may decide that licensing gun dealers is oppressive too, so guns must be made available in large gumball machines at every shopping center in America.
[Politico / WaPo (gift link) / White House]
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