HankT
State Researcher
imported post
I really don't see how Hampton has closed the "loophole." Maybe I'm missing it...
Ideduce that a private seller cannot get a table at the Hampton shows...butis there anything that prevents aprivate seller from selling to a private buyer at the Hampton shows?
Also, I wonder if anyone will start accusing Southeastern Guns and Knives of selling out 2A rights advocates by voluntarily agreeing with City of Hampton restrictions...
Gun show sense
Other cities should close the loophole, as Hampton has
October 29, 2007
Gun control will be an issue in the General Assembly in January, as usual, but this time the always-hot subject will be further fueled by the Virginia Tech massacre. Fortunately, common sense can sometimes break free of the entrenched political positions. When it comes to gun shows, for instance, Hampton has shown the way.
Consider the scene last weekend in Richmond, as gun-control advocates and gun-rights advocates faced off in a protest outside a big gun show. On the gun-control side, 32 people lay on the ground, representing the 32 victims of Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech. On the gun-rights side, supporters maneuvered into view of TV cameras with signs like the one that said, "This is what happens when people are denied effective means of self-defense."
Now, with the Tech murders in mind, it's true that the question of whether colleges should be able to impose gun restrictions on students and employees is going to come up at the next Assembly session. And that "arm everybody" argument is sure to be heard.
But the issue in this case was the gun show, not the campus.
Virginia law requires licensed gun dealers to screen potential buyers through a state database as well as a federal database. But, like many other states, it exempts person-to-person, private-owner gun sales from that requirement.
Background checks are designed to ensure that guns aren't sold to people the community agrees should not have them. That is, people who have lost that right because they are felons, they are subject to a court's restraining order for threatening someone, or they have been judged mentally unfit.
It's a good process that gun-rights advocates resisted years ago, then wisely took charge of, in cooperation with police, to make it streamlined and efficient. Licensed dealers – that means businesses that sell guns, largely – process such checks routinely every day.
The rationale for the exemption for private sales stands up when it's applied to keep from complicating the lives and choices of individual gun owners. Why should Uncle Al have to worry about getting a background check on his next-door neighbor, a fellow gun collector, in order to sell him that extra handgun?
But the exemption has earned its nickname – the Gun Show Loophole – when that one-on-one transaction leaves the neighborhood and takes up a sales booth in a big arena. Now it's more like a commercial transaction – but with no questions asked.
In fact, even with the changes made since the Tech murders to keep deranged people like Cho from buying guns from licensed businesses, nothing in the system today would stop another Cho from buying from a private owner at a gun show.
But not in Hampton.
Hampton requires promoters who want to sponsor gun shows at its facilities to bring in only licensed dealers. And to make things simple, the State Police are on hand to do instant background checks.
The beauty of the city's approach is that it addressed the loophole without needing the permission of the General Assembly. The legislature has rejected bills to close the loophole, and will probably do it again. So Hampton used its leverage as the owner of the exhibition space to make rules for the companies that would use it.
Southeastern Guns and Knives, a Portsmouth-based company that sponsors gun shows across the state, is a regular promoter at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, as it had been at the Hampton Coliseum. It abides by the Hampton rules, and keeps coming back – the next show is next month -- so it must make business sense, too.
When the gun-show issue first arose in Hampton, some gun-control voices wanted the city to ban gun shows from its arenas altogether. But that would have gone too far. There's plenty of competition for show space, and only so many boat shows, hobbyist conventions and home expos to go around. Besides, some people obviously enjoy gun shows, and most of what goes on there is as legal as what happens at a quilters' conven- tion.
But with such a simple approach as Hampton's readily available, other cities should also stop enabling unregulated gun show sales. Why wait for the General Assembly to say no again?
Practical action beats a protest, on either side.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-ed_gunshow_edit_1029oct29,0,4625776.story
I really don't see how Hampton has closed the "loophole." Maybe I'm missing it...
Ideduce that a private seller cannot get a table at the Hampton shows...butis there anything that prevents aprivate seller from selling to a private buyer at the Hampton shows?
Also, I wonder if anyone will start accusing Southeastern Guns and Knives of selling out 2A rights advocates by voluntarily agreeing with City of Hampton restrictions...
Gun show sense
Other cities should close the loophole, as Hampton has
October 29, 2007
Gun control will be an issue in the General Assembly in January, as usual, but this time the always-hot subject will be further fueled by the Virginia Tech massacre. Fortunately, common sense can sometimes break free of the entrenched political positions. When it comes to gun shows, for instance, Hampton has shown the way.
Consider the scene last weekend in Richmond, as gun-control advocates and gun-rights advocates faced off in a protest outside a big gun show. On the gun-control side, 32 people lay on the ground, representing the 32 victims of Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech. On the gun-rights side, supporters maneuvered into view of TV cameras with signs like the one that said, "This is what happens when people are denied effective means of self-defense."
Now, with the Tech murders in mind, it's true that the question of whether colleges should be able to impose gun restrictions on students and employees is going to come up at the next Assembly session. And that "arm everybody" argument is sure to be heard.
But the issue in this case was the gun show, not the campus.
Virginia law requires licensed gun dealers to screen potential buyers through a state database as well as a federal database. But, like many other states, it exempts person-to-person, private-owner gun sales from that requirement.
Background checks are designed to ensure that guns aren't sold to people the community agrees should not have them. That is, people who have lost that right because they are felons, they are subject to a court's restraining order for threatening someone, or they have been judged mentally unfit.
It's a good process that gun-rights advocates resisted years ago, then wisely took charge of, in cooperation with police, to make it streamlined and efficient. Licensed dealers – that means businesses that sell guns, largely – process such checks routinely every day.
The rationale for the exemption for private sales stands up when it's applied to keep from complicating the lives and choices of individual gun owners. Why should Uncle Al have to worry about getting a background check on his next-door neighbor, a fellow gun collector, in order to sell him that extra handgun?
But the exemption has earned its nickname – the Gun Show Loophole – when that one-on-one transaction leaves the neighborhood and takes up a sales booth in a big arena. Now it's more like a commercial transaction – but with no questions asked.
In fact, even with the changes made since the Tech murders to keep deranged people like Cho from buying guns from licensed businesses, nothing in the system today would stop another Cho from buying from a private owner at a gun show.
But not in Hampton.
Hampton requires promoters who want to sponsor gun shows at its facilities to bring in only licensed dealers. And to make things simple, the State Police are on hand to do instant background checks.
The beauty of the city's approach is that it addressed the loophole without needing the permission of the General Assembly. The legislature has rejected bills to close the loophole, and will probably do it again. So Hampton used its leverage as the owner of the exhibition space to make rules for the companies that would use it.
Southeastern Guns and Knives, a Portsmouth-based company that sponsors gun shows across the state, is a regular promoter at the Hampton Roads Convention Center, as it had been at the Hampton Coliseum. It abides by the Hampton rules, and keeps coming back – the next show is next month -- so it must make business sense, too.
When the gun-show issue first arose in Hampton, some gun-control voices wanted the city to ban gun shows from its arenas altogether. But that would have gone too far. There's plenty of competition for show space, and only so many boat shows, hobbyist conventions and home expos to go around. Besides, some people obviously enjoy gun shows, and most of what goes on there is as legal as what happens at a quilters' conven- tion.
But with such a simple approach as Hampton's readily available, other cities should also stop enabling unregulated gun show sales. Why wait for the General Assembly to say no again?
Practical action beats a protest, on either side.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-ed_gunshow_edit_1029oct29,0,4625776.story
