Gun Laws and History

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Gun Control Disguised As Crime Control - USA


When it comes to gun shows, gun control advocates are trying to close a nonexistent loophole--and they won`t stop until all legal private transfers are banned.

Numerous studies have shown that gun shows are not a significant source of guns used in crime. Ignoring this evidence, some gun control activists claim that 70 percent of the guns used in crimes come from shows. And Handgun Control, Inc. asserts that "25-50 percent of the vendors at most gun shows are unlicensed dealers."

Thus, they argue, requiring background checks on all buyers at gun shows--whether they purchase from licensed or "unlicensed" dealers--will deny children and criminals access to firearms. During the past year, state legislatures and Congress were flooded with bills to further regulate the sale of firearms at gun shows; most would require background checks on all such sales.

While gun show bills ultimately failed in the U.S. Congress, some cities have banned gun shows entirely, and Oregon and Colorado approved referenda requiring background checks.

This argument has some appeal to those seeking an easy fix to mass public shootings. But mandating background checks at gun shows will not reduce crime significantly. Rather than closing a loophole in current law, mandatory checks will be a step towards banning private firearms sales between individuals.

Current Law Governing Gun Sales

The National Instant Check System (NICS) took effect November 30, 1998, creating "a national database containing records of persons who are disqualified from receiving firearms." Under NICS, dealers must clear every firearms purchase through a background check of the prospective buyer by the FBI. The dealer calls NICS and provides an operator with:

(1) his Federal firearms license number and unique password;

(2) the potential buyer`s name, date of birth, sex and race;

(3) and the type of gun to be transferred, handgun or long gun.

The operator checks the data against NICS`s database of prohibited persons and either approves or delays the sale. A delay indicates that the check turned up information that requires further review by an analyst, who by law has up to three business days to approve or deny the sale--longer than the duration of most gun shows, which last over a weekend.

Gun Shows Are Not "Arms Bazaars" for Criminals
A mid-1980s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study of convicted felons in 12 state prisons found that criminals purchased firearms at gun shows so rarely that those purchases were not worth reporting as a separate category.

The evidence indicates that criminal demand for firearms did not shift to gun shows after the 1994 Brady Law mandated background checks for all gun purchases from licensed dealers.

An NIJ study released in December 1997 said only 2 percent of criminal guns came from gun shows.

A study of youthful offenders in Michigan, presented at a meeting of the American Society of Criminology, found that only 3 percent had acquired their last handgun at a gun show--and many of the purchases were made by "straw purchasers" (i.e., legal gun buyers illegally acting as surrogates for criminals).

A 1997 report by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics on federal firearms offenders said only 1.7 percent of crime guns are acquired at gun shows.

According to a report issued by the educational arm of Handgun Control, only two of 48 major city police chiefs said that gun show sales were an important problem in their city.

There Is No Gun Show Loophole

The claim that a quarter to half of the vendors at most gun shows are unlicensed dealers is true only if one counts vendors selling items other than guns (e.g., books, clothing, ammunition, knives, holsters and other accessories) as unlicensed dealers.

Federal law requires that any person "engaged in the business" of selling firearms possess a valid Federal Firearms License. This is true whether one is selling guns for a living at a gun store or at a gun show. Licensed dealers must conduct an NICS check prior to the transfer of any firearm--regardless of where that transfer occurs. The majority of sellers at gun shows are licensed dealers and do conduct checks.

Individuals who occasionally sell or trade guns from their personal collection need not be licensed nor are they required to conduct a NICS check prior to the sale--whether the sale occurs at a gun show, at their home or out of the trunk of their car.

Congress never intended a person who wants to sell a spare hunting rifle to a friend, a father who wishes to give a .22 rifle to his son or a widow who wishes to dispose of her late husband`s firearms through an Internet auction or an ad in the local paper to undertake a NICS background check.

Thus, the same laws apply to gun shows as to all other gun transactions.

The Inherent Flaws with NICS

A General Accounting Office report, "Gun Control: Implementation of NICS," was issued on February 29, 2000. It documents many NICS failures. With a congressional allocation of more than $300 million since 1995:

Through September 1999, NICS had 360 unscheduled outages amounting to more than 215 hours of downtime, during which firearms retailers may have suffered millions of dollars in lost sales.

The system failed to provide instant checks 28 percent of the time, delaying sales for 1.2 million legal purchasers from hours to days.
Of the 81,000 sales denied by the FBI under NICS, nearly 14,000 people appealed, claiming that they were wrongly denied; of cases adjudicated at the time the report was issued, 2,710 denials had been overturned.

3,353 felons and others prohibited by law from purchasing firearms were allowed to buy guns over the counter after being mistakenly approved by NICS; but only 3.3 percent of these prohibited individuals were being investigated by the federal government for violating federal firearms laws by purchasing guns.

Since private individuals cannot obtain access to the NICS system, some proponents of gun show legislation have proposed allowing or requiring licensed dealers to conduct the checks for occasional sellers or private collectors at gun shows for a nominal fee. This would be like requiring individuals who wish to sell their used cars to conduct the sale through a used car dealer.

It would take time away from the dealer`s business and put him at risk of losing sales to a third party selling a substitute product at a better price.

Conclusion

Gun control advocates are seeking to close a nonexistent loophole. Logically, this will lead to calls for closing other nonexistent loopholes until all private firearms transfers--even those between family and friends--are under government regulation.

California has already banned all private gun sales, requiring that a licensed gun dealer handle them. There is also a fee for the background check, a two-week waiting period and the sale must be registered with the California Department of Justice.

Tightening gun show requirements might make sense if NICS worked as it should and if background checks on private gun sales reduced violent crime, but there is no evidence that either is the case. Rather than expanding the flawed NICS to cover the small number of private sales at gun shows, money could be better spent fixing the NICS and prosecuting the felons who have already purchased guns illegally.



STATEMENT MADE IN APRIL, 1942 - GERMANY

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police.

German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country."

--Adolf Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens. Introduced and with a new preface by H. R. Trevor-Roper. The original German papers were known as Bormann-Vermerke.





Nazi Weapons Act of 1938 (Translated to English)

Classified guns for "sporting purposes".

All citizens who wished to purchase firearms had to register with the Nazi officials and have a background check.

Presumed German citizens were hostile and thereby exempted Nazis from the gun control law.

Gave Nazis unrestricted power to decide what kinds of firearms could, or could not be owned by private persons.

The types of ammunition that were legal were subject to control by bureaucrats.

Juveniles under 18 years could not buy firearms and ammunition.


A Gun Control Law Passed by the German Government One Day After Kristallnacht

Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons
11 November 1938

With a basis in §31 of the Weapons Law of 18 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p.265), Article III of the Law on the Reunification of Austria with Germany of 13 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 237), and §9 of the Führer and Chancellor's decree on the administration of the Sudeten-German districts of 1 October 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p 1331) are the following ordered:

§1 Jews (§5 of the First Regulations of the German Citizenship Law of 14 November 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 1333) are prohibited from acquiring, possessing, and carrying firearms and ammunition, as well as truncheons or stabbing weapons. Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority.

§2 Firearms and ammunition found in a Jew's possession will be forfeited to the government without compensation.

§3 The Minister of the Interior may make exceptions to the Prohibition in §1 for Jews who are foreign nationals. He can entrust other authorities with this power.

§4 Whoever willfully or negligently violates the provisions of §1 will be punished with imprisonment and a fine. In especially severe cases of deliberate violations, the punishment is imprisonment in a penitentiary for up to five years.

§5 For the implementation of this regulation, the Minister of the Interior waives the necessary legal and administrative provisions.

§6 This regulation is valid in the state of Austria and in the Sudeten-German districts.

Berlin, 11 November 1938 - Minister of the Interior Frick




Closeup of the Holland poster banning guns.

Citizens had 24 hours to surrender all firearms to the Nazis or face the death penalty. Printed in German on the left and Flemish on the right. For translation, see sidebar. From Die Deutsche Wochenschau, May 15, 1940.

Regulations on Arms Possessionin the Occupied Zone1. All firearms and ammunition, hand grenades, explosive devices and other war materiel are to be surrendered.

.....The delivery must take place within 24 hours at the nearest German military administrative headquarters or garrison, provided that other special arrangements have not been made. The mayors (heads of the district councils) must accept full responsibility for complete implementation. Commanding officers are authorized to approve exceptions.



German poster from occupied France imposing the death penalty for not turning in all firearms and radio transmitters within 24 hours.

Ordinance Concerning the Possession of Arms and Radio Transmitters in the Occupied Territories

1) All firearms and all sorts of munitions, hand grenades, explosives and other war materials must be surrendered immediately.Delivery must take place within 24 hours to the closest Kommandantur [German commander's office] unless other arrangements have been made. Mayors will be held strictly responsible for the execution of this order. The [German] troop commanders may allow exceptions.

2) Anyone found in possession of firearms, munitions, hand grenades or other war materials will be sentenced to death or forced labor or in lesser cases prison.

3) Anyone in possession of a radio or a radio transmitter must surrender it to the closest German military authority.

4) All those who would disobey this order or would commit any act of violence in the occupied lands against the German army or against any of its troops will be condemned to death.

The Commander in Chief of the Army



At the time of the Nazi attack on Jews known as Night of the Broken Glass, Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi SS and Police, ordered Jews disarmed. People's Observer (Völkische Beobachter), November 10, 1938.

Jews Forbidden to Possess WeaponsBy Order of SS Reichsfuhrer Himmler
Munich, November 19 [1938] The SS Reichsfuhrer and German Police Chief has issued the following Order:Persons who, according to the Nuremberg law, are regarded as Jews, are forbidden to possess any weapon. Violators will be condemned to a concentration camp and imprisoned for a period of up to 20 years.


Teddy

DISCLAIMER:
This commentary was copied and pasted from documents available on a public domain and as all my past and present commentaries this was my decision based on fact and history. When ever anyone is quoted it is from a public source. I thought I should remind you that we must protect our first and second ammendment rights.