'At Last, Gun Rules We Can All Agree On,' Says Group of 300 US Mayors

[XDTalk RSS]

Finally. After decades of ideological debates over the meaning of every word and comma contained in the U.S. Constitution's one-sentence Second Amendment, the Supreme Court has issued a ruling that should largely settle the matter. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the court found that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms, while also affirming the constitutionality... [Wall Street Journal, Opinion, via gunpolicy.org ]

More...

[TexicanKid]

Originally Posted by XDTalk RSS

Finally. After decades of ideological debates over the meaning of every word and comma contained in the U.S. Constitution's one-sentence Second Amendment, the Supreme Court has issued a ruling that should largely settle the matter. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the court found that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms, while also affirming the constitutionality... [Wall Street Journal, Opinion, via gunpolicy.org ]

More...

They always talk about closing the "gunshow loophole". Heck, I call that the "freedom loophole", the one loophole which allows free men and women to freely purchase firearms for defense of self and freedom.

When that loophole closes, all persons will have to kneel before government in order to request the opportunity to purchase their own protection.

[Bobby Schulz]

"I call that the "freedom loophole"
True!

[Krackels]

Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with a firearm. That's the equivalent of a Virginia Tech massacre. And like the Virginia Tech killer, most murderers purchase or possess their guns in violation of federal law. Our bipartisan coalition of mayors has identified four key reforms that would fix the federal government's primary tool for preventing illegal gun sales: the background check system.

- Close the gun-show loophole. Currently, licensed gun dealers are required to run criminal background checks on all buyers, but a loophole in the law enables criminals to avoid these checks if they buy from "occasional sellers" who don't have federal licenses. These unlicensed sellers, who often operate at gun shows, shoot a hole through the background-check system that allows criminals to purchase guns. That is why the major presidential candidates have called for this gun show loophole to be closed.

- End gun-dealer fire sales. If the federal government shuts down gun dealers for selling illegally, it nevertheless allows those dealers to sell off their inventory without conducting the background checks that it normally requires them to do. Imagine if a liquor store was shut down for selling to minors. Would anyone support a policy that would allow the owner to sell off all the remaining liquor without checking IDs? Of course not.

- Require gun dealers to do background checks on employees. Under the current law, if a person can't buy guns – because he or she has a criminal or mental-illness record – that person cannot sell guns, either. But the law fails to require dealers to conduct background checks on their employees, even though they already have background-check machines in their stores.

- Close the "terror gap." If the federal government can prevent a potentially dangerous person from getting on a plane, shouldn't it also be able to prevent that person from buying guns? Last year, the Bush administration endorsed a bill that will close the terror gap. Congress should make it law this year.
Recently, our coalition of mayors commissioned a bipartisan public opinion poll to ask Americans what they thought of these four ideas. In each case, more than 80% of Americans – including more than 80% of gun owners – stated their support. This is the vast middle ground shared by mayors across the country, and now that the Supreme Court has swept aside the old ideological debate, the only question remaining is whether Congress has the courage to join us.

Mr. Bloomberg is the mayor of New York City. Mr. Menino is the mayor of Boston. They are the founding co-chairs of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

They're all put forward with good intentions and I have to say that they all seem like a good idea, except for the "gun-show loophole". I can't speak for any other state, but in PA if you buy a gun from a dealer you will fill out the 4473 (plus the PA State Police registration if it's a handgun) and go through the normal background checks, but if you buy a firearm from an individual you don't need to do an official transfer according to the law (the exception is handguns, which according to the state law must always be transfered).

Personally, I don't see the private sale of firearms to be a real problem at gun shows. In my thinking, if people sell a handgun illegally at a gun show they're probably the same people that will sell a handgun illegally elsewhere.

And on a side-note, I've never heard of a gun dealer fire sale. It sounds neat. makes me think that I could get a bunch of goodies for severely marked down prices.

Also, I don't think being on a government watch list should disqualify you from purchasing and owning firearms. The law provides a good number of provisions that would exempt a good number of folks from legally purchasing firearms, and I'm not sure that adding one more would be wise or necessary.

[Yuppicide]

As for the "Gun-show Loophole" that's an EASY FIX:

Background Checks for Firearm sales & Transfers should be FREE.

Unlicensed occasional sellers should be able to choose whether or not to run the person they are selling to through a backgound check.

....But, IF YOU DECIDE NOT TO RUN A FREE BACKGROUND CHECK, and it can be PROVEN that the person you sold to was barred from legally owning a Firearm (at the time of sales) -It should be a FELONY and Minimun of 2 Years in jail for Each firearm sold.

I think that's Fair.

[Sirius1963]

Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with a firearm. That's the equivalent of a Virginia Tech massacre. And like the Virginia Tech killer, most murderers purchase or possess their guns in violation of federal law. Our bipartisan coalition of mayors has identified four key reforms that would fix the federal government's primary tool for preventing illegal gun sales: the background check system.

I know I have bad short-term memory, but didn't they determine that he didn't break any laws? I thought they determined that he had mental issues, but was never commited or he wasn't "ordered to seek help" or something like that. Seems he passed the b/g check that was in place at the time.



ETA: I mean he didn't break any laws BEFORE he started shooting...

[digitalexplr]

Originally Posted by Yuppicide

As for the "Gun-show Loophole" that's an EASY FIX:

Background Checks for Firearm sales & Transfers should be FREE.

Unlicensed occasional sellers should be able to choose whether or not to run the person they are selling to through a backgound check.

....But, IF YOU DECIDE NOT TO RUN A FREE BACKGROUND CHECK, and it can be PROVEN that the person you sold to was barred from legally owning a Firearm (at the time of sales) -It should be a FELONY and Minimun of 2 Years in jail for Each firearm sold.

I think that's Fair.

Not a bad idea. In Missouri if an esblishment that servers alcohol serves a person who is already drunk, they are liable if that person leaves their establishment and injures or kills another.

Likewise, police officers (and their departments) have been held liable when an officer stopped a motorist, let the motorist go, when that motorist drove further down the road and had and accident and was found to be intoxicated.

If you sell a firearm to an individual without checking to make sure they are legally able to possess a firearm, should you also not be liable?

Does seem to make sense.

[Reno82]

+1 with Yuppicide. Good idea.

[Ishpeck]

I love how this article pretends these fifteen mayors somehow have more authority than the gajillions of other mayors elected by gajillions of other people in the country.

[digitalexplr]

I think we can agree that there are a bunch of mayors who need to be sent packing next election!