By Paul Harrison
The passage of the Brady Bill in 1994 mandated that all firearm sales by federally licensed gun dealers to individuals be verified by an FBI approved background check. There are a few exceptions such as a holder of an approved concealed weapons permit is exempt from the background check and obviously police officers for departmental use but for the most part every sale must include a check no matter where it occurs, if the individual already owns seven guns, or just bought one this morning. Despite the misleading reports, all sales by licensed dealers at a gun show or any other off site event are subject to background checks just as if they were at their store. There is no “Gun show loophole.”
What the “loophole” is and what “Universal Background Checks” are all about are private sales. For example if Bob has a .410 shotgun he wants to sell or trade he may go to a gun show to see if he can sell it or trade it to one of the dealers. While there he meets Joe who wants to buy a .410 so they make the deal and the gun changes hands. Bob has a legal responsibility to ensure that Joe is a legal Maine resident and has no reason to believe he is prohibited from owning a gun but there is no background check requirement. Same situation if Joe purchases a gun from his neighbor to go duck hunting with.
A “Universal Background Check” would require Bob and Joe seek the services of a licensed gun dealer who would receive the gun into his books from Bob and “sell” it to Joe which requires a background check. Maine’s proposed law would require this action even if for an afternoon loan to go hunting or shooting. I would expect there would be a yet to be undetermined fee for this service. Other than the entry in the dealer’s books there is no record or registration of the gun or the transaction. The only achievement is the background check.
So you might ask; what is wrong with that? Other that the potential for misuse by an over aggressive government agency of the future making a criminal offense out of an afternoon loan, the main issue is that it is unenforceable and likely designed to fail.
If the purpose of background checks for this type of casual sale is to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, we are kidding ourselves. Criminals will not present themselves to a check they will not pass and commit a felony just trying. They will continue to obtain guns through illegal means just like they do now. The only way to make this deal work is to keep a database of either guns or gun owners, and that, boys and girls, opens a whole new can of worms. But that’s for another time.
Paul Harrison, a resident of Houlton since 1975, has been involved in retail sales of guns and ammunition and continued in the firearms industry for 35 years before retiring last year. He can be reached at paharrison1952@gmail.com
