NRA News Downplays Loophole That Helps Arm Criminals

[SecularMotion]

NRA News host Cam Edwards made a number of misleading statements during the August 29 edition of Cam & Company while discussing a call by Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) to require a background check for nearly every gun sale in the U.S. Specifically Edwards' claim that MAIG's proposal would cause "an end to private sales of firearms" is blatantly false.

In fact, states with a universal background check law, which aims to prevent gun sales to felons and other prohibited purchasers, allow private individuals to sell firearms, so long as the purchaser undergoes a background check. For example, in California a private seller must conduct his or her sale though a licensed dealer who runs a check on the purchaser.

Twelve states -- Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island -- have passed laws creating additional requirements for private sellers, including running background checks, without outlawing the practice of private sales. Meanwhile states that allow sales without a background check create a market for widespread criminal activity.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/08/30/nra-news-downplays-loophole-that-helps-arm-crim/189674

[rDigital]

1. Article is disingenuous

Private sales have to be PRIVATE to qualify as private. When you add the background check and the fees that the dealer charges you are spending more money and it's not private.

It's already illegal to sell to someone who is a prohibited person. You will go to jail. We don't need more laws, we just need to enforce the ones we already have.

Also, the whole un-stated point of banning private sales is to create a de-facto total gun registry. If the .gov can see EVERY transfer, they can easily create a registry list of who owns what and where.

Registration = Confiscation, just ask a Californian, the English or an Australian. They registered their firearms and were greeted with confiscation of private property. Even the Canadians are doing away with registration and background checks for private transfers.

MediaMatters is behind the times on this one.

[SecularMotion]

2. So you agree with the NRA?

[rDigital]

3. What's your point? I already wrote my thoughts out. Let's here some of yours. nt

[krispos42]

4. The NRA is saying that if a sale from a non-dealer to a non-dealer...

...has to go through a dealer, it's no longer a private sale. The NRA is correct, at least factually. Essentially the government is forcing Person A to sell the gun to a dealer, who then immediately sells it to Person B at a fixed dollar profit of,say, $20.

I think the idea is not a bad one, but let's not fool ourselves as the the implications of the law

[DanTex]

5. Wait, so "NRA News" is being misleading? No way!!!

[aikoaiko]

6. In this case, Mediamatters is also misleading their readers

From the article you cite:

The unregulated market -- principally firearms sold at gun shows, through newspaper classifieds, and over the Internet - represents an estimated 40 percent of total gun sales.

In actuality, the vast majority of private sales are between friends and family members and not strangers at gun shows or classified ads.
[IMG][/IMG]
Cook & Ludwig, Guns in America

[Trunk Monkey]

7. Colorado requires a back ground check for private sales only at a gun show

I can still put an ad in the paper and buy or sell a gun with out one