‘Historic’ action by justice department closes ‘doggone dangerous’ loophole in Biden administration’s fight against gun violence

The sale of firearms on the internet and at gun shows in the US will in future be subject to mandatory background checks, the justice department said on Thursday as it announced a “historic” new action to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.

The closing of the so-called gun show loophole, which exempts private transactions from restrictions that apply to licensed dealers, has long been a goal of the Biden administration, and is specifically targeted in the rule published in the federal register today.

The White House estimates that 22% of guns owned by Americans were acquired without a background check and that about 23,000 more individuals will be required to be licensed as a dealer after the rule’s implementation.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Yep.

    Even the “gun show” part isn’t doing a lot, anyone that pays for a table is likely to make you do a background check anyways, because they are an FFL.

    This does nothing about the actual problem.

    “Private” sales which are done in the parking lot of gun shows.

    It’s just some bullshit before an election so Biden can say he’s done something about the gun violence pandemic

    • RustyWizard@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      I’ve only ever purchased a single gun at a gun show, but they had a big ass table full of guns (and other junk) and I was not subject to a background check. This is definitely going to force more background checks, which is a good thing.

      • TunaCowboy@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        If it’s more than a few guns from a private collection that’s already illegal. The ATF would happily show up and ram the law up their ass if notified.

        • RustyWizard@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          That’s a pretty significant “if”. This was a gun show in Phoenix 5+ years ago. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it’s unlikely they were openly violating the law at such a large event.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I can’t speak to everywhere or anyone else’s experience, but I’ve got about the same experience as you. The gun shows here tend to have a lot of “private collectors” selling guns. Some are legit private collectors, some should be gun shops but only sell at shows so no one makes them do shit.

    • sepulcher@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      It’s just some bullshit before an election so Biden can say he’s done something about the gun violence pandemic

      Yeah, I’m noticing a lot of posturing from the democrats this year.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It’s always funny when a common sense comment gets massive down votes just because at the very end I put something about how Dems aren’t doing as much as they need to.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Everyone knows that certain gun shows are massive laundering operations for stolen weapons. The FBI has straight up stated that a large number of guns which are used in crimes in the Northeast can be traced back to gun shows in Virginia specifically. If you “look the part” it is trivial to get basically any common enough gun at a gun show just by doing a deal in a parking lot, since it’s completely legal for an FFL to gift any gun to an associate, and completely legal for that associate to sell it to you in the parking lot. Cops literally watch this happen because it is legal.