Gun show loophole
According to a statement by the United States Department of Justice in 2024, unlicensed dealers are a significant source of firearms that are illegally trafficked into communities.
The Brady Law originally imposed an interim measure, requiring a waiting period of 5 days before a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer may sell, deliver, or transfer a handgun to an unlicensed individual.
The waiting period applied only in states without an alternate system that was deemed acceptable of conducting background checks on handgun purchasers.
[19] Private parties who are not engaged in the business of selling firearms are not legally required by federal law to: ask for identification, complete any forms, or keep any sales records, as long as the sale is not made in interstate commerce (across state lines) and does not fall under purview of the National Firearms Act (originally of 1934 and revised in 1968, which governs machine guns, short-barreled rifles, sawed-off shotguns, suppressors and destructive devices).
According to the USDOJ, this new definition made it difficult for them to identify offenders who could claim they were operating as "hobbyists" trading firearms from their personal collection.
[9][52][n 2] Efforts to reverse a key feature of FOPA by requiring criminal background checks and purchase records on private sales at gun shows were unsuccessful.
[56] A 1997 report by the National Institute of Justice stated that fewer than 2% of convicted criminals bought their firearm at a flea market or gun show.
[57] A 2019 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that fewer than 1% of prison inmates who responded to a survey said they obtained a firearm at a gun show (0.8%).
Departments of Health, Education, and Justice in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting in order to make recommendations on ways the federal government can prevent such tragedies.
[65] Goals and objectives that the NIAA sought to address included: The gap in information available to NICS about such prohibiting mental health adjudications and commitments.
Filling these information gaps will better enable the system to operate as intended, to keep guns out of the hands of persons prohibited by federal or state law from receiving or possessing firearms.
[71][72] After the shootings president Trump posted a response on social media: "We cannot let those killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain.
[95] In 2022, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) was passed, which after interpretation by the United States Department of Justice, partly closed the gun show loophole.
As a result, there is no specific threshold number or frequency of sales, quantity of firearms, or amount of profit or time invested that triggers the licensure requirement.
[105] The Department of Justice estimated that the rule modification would reclassify about 23,000 current unlicensed gun sellers as being profit-oriented and thus required to apply for an FFL, and said that the rule change might reduce the number of people motivated to cross state lines to take advantage of differences in state laws regarding whether background checks are needed.
[106] The VPC study documented the effect of the 1986 Firearms Owners' Protection Act in regard to proliferation of gun shows, which resulted in "a readily available source of weapons and ammunition for a wide variety of criminals, as well as Timothy McVeigh and David Koresh".
[107][108] According to the VPC, the utility of gun shows to dangerous individuals stems primarily from the exemption enjoyed by private sellers from the sales criteria of the Brady law as well as the absence of a background check.
"[110]: 104 In the context of avoiding pitfalls in legislation to end the gun show loophole, Wintemute's position states: The fundamental flaw in the gun show loophole proposal is its failure to address the great majority of private-party sales, which occur at other locations and increasingly over the Internet at sites where any non-prohibited person can list firearms for sale and buyers can search for private-party sellers.
[110]On May 27, 1999, Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, saying: "We think it is reasonable to provide mandatory, instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show.
They also dispute the idea that the current law amounts to a gun-show loophole, pointing out that many of the people selling at gun shows are federally licensed dealers.
[120] Based on 2015 data, Philip J. Cook, who was the lead researcher for the prior NSPOF survey, produced an updated estimate of 22% for the percentage of gun transfers processed as private sales.
The same study also found that state laws that required background checks for all gun sales were strongly associated with lower rates of gun-related deaths.
[122] Also that year Gabriel J. Chin, professor at UC Davis School of Law, stated that since there are no clear stipulations for the number of firearms sold before someone is required to be federally licensed and that since gun shows are usually held on weekends, "there is room for someone to claim 'this is a hobby or part of my collection' when it is also a substantial business.
[129] After the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, gun shows and background checks became a focus of national debate in the United States.
[133] [134] Weeks after the shooting, United States Senators Frank Lautenberg and Jack Reed introduced a bill to require background checks for sales at gun shows in federal law.
On April 30, 2007, Tim Kaine, the Governor of Virginia, issued an executive order intended to prohibit the sale of guns to anyone found to be dangerous and forced to undergo involuntary mental health treatment.
[138] The governor wrote: I was disappointed to see the Virginia legislature balk, largely under pressure from the NRA, at efforts to close the gun-show loophole that allows anyone to buy weapons without any background check.
[149] After the Charleston church shooting in 2015 raised the topic of background checks, former president Obama took executive actions in effort to close the gun show loophole.
[150][151][152] In accordance with The Brady Act and certain state's laws, licensed gun dealers may complete firearm sales with an incomplete background check after three days.
[153][154][155] In a statement during the aftermath of the shooting, former FBI Director James Comey told reporters the shooter should have been denied, but the data was added incorrectly into the (NICS) database.
