By Brett LinleySPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The tragic shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon brought gun control into the national spotlight again.
Following yet another horrific shooting, President Obama took to the podium to repeat his call for “common sense” gun laws. In light of this, it is reasonable to have the conversation on solving gun violence.
A commonly-proposed solution is a universal background check law. The thinking goes that if every firearm transaction goes through the federal government and the so-called “gun show loophole” is closed, bad guys won’t get guns.
While the idea is certainly well-intentioned, its logic evaporates upon close examination. To purchase a firearm from a federally licensed dealer, a buyer must pass a background check conducted through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.
The proponents of a universal background check law would apply this not only to these transactions, but also to all private transactions such as that of a father passing a hunting rifle down to his son. If this seems unworkable and intrusive, it’s because it is.
As the target of expansion, the current NICS database is full of holes. It operates only through the data for who can’t legally own a firearm, supplied to it by the states, and the fact is that many states don’t supply complete data which is a big problem.
When Dylann Roof went to purchase the firearm used in the deadly and tragic shooting in North Carolina, the background check did not turn up the data that he in fact should not have been able to buy a firearm.
A logical solution would be to compel the states to turn over data to NICS so they can more effectively keep dangerous people from getting firearms. While supported by the “gun lobby,” this is often ignored and becomes subservient to cries to close the “gun show loophole” and monitor all private transactions.
The “gun show loophole” could potentially be dangerous if it actually existed. In reality, to sell firearms at a gun show, you need to have a Federal Firearms License (FFL) and conduct a background check. If you do not, you are in violation of federal law. If a criminal gets someone to pass a background check for him or her to obtain a gun, both of them can face substantial fines and prison time.
In regards to monitoring all private transactions, I would simply say good luck keeping tabs on the estimated 270 million firearms owned in America without an intrusive gun registry that most certainly would not pass the smell test of constitutionality or feasibility.
It is reasonable to wonder how in the world criminals can get their hands on firearms when it’s illegal to get guns from unlicensed vendors and perhaps even more surprising, illegal to kill people with them. The short answer is that there are a lot of guns in America.
This will not change anytime soon. If we want to do right by the people who’ve lost their lives to gun violence, we can accept this reality and fix a broken system while ceasing the bizarre practice of leaving people exposed in gun-free zones.
The more we try to force-feed unworkable solutions to the country in the name of “common sense,” the more we can expect the same things to continue to occur.
Brett Linley is the President of the Hofstra Students for Liberty.
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