Quote:
Originally Posted by forgop
I know one of the things that will be touched on in a new law will be the requirement of a background check for all private sales. Anyone have an issue with it?
Personally, I'm for it. Would you want to know people that are denied via a dealer/background check can just resort to buying off a private sale with no such consideration? The only downfall will involve a bureaucratic process of P2P sales that will obviously encounter increased time and expense to make said transaction.
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On the surface, it sounds good... except the details of any implementation fall apart, and make every owner trackable.
Lets explore it:
New law - "private sales must be done at a dealer and have a background check."
But, here's the rub. If me and Justin are pals and live in the same town, I want to sell a gun to him. He's not going to turn me in, so we sell it privately.
how would you know we sold it privately? Only one way - guns & serial numbers have to be linked to their owners and tracked, and if the correct owner doesn't have it, big doo doo for that owner.
Which means they know what each owner has.
Right now for example, I purchased a Glock 17 last week. That was last week. There is a paper trail that leads from the Manufacturer, to the dealer, and then to me. But that's where the chain gets broken. You have NO IDEA if I still have it today. I could have just as easily sold it yesterday. Sorry officer, I don't have that anymore.
Right now there is no central database (ATF has to do it by hand, call the dealer, etc), however the creation of one is being strongly considered by the prez, and honestly, it wouldn't take much, I'd say it's a high likelihood.
So assuming we have a central database of sales, BLAM, who needs "registration?". One computer search will show exactly what I have - keyword, HAVE, present tense, not "HAD" as in past tense. Someone shows up at my door and asks to see my Glock 17 that I purchased last week,
then I damned well better have it or the paper trail to prove I don't. 
I can't say I needed money and sold it at a gun show yesterday, they're going to need to see that paper trail.
But maybe I don't want people to know I have it 
And if that paper trail requirement doesn't exist, then what is the point? People are lazy, they will continue to sell without a BG check to anyone that doesn't look like a BATF agent, why go through the hassle if you don't have to?
Finally, bear in mind that most felon's have been trained by the U.S. Prison system to get what they want in a complete lock down environment. If they can find a way to get drugs, booze, weapons etc while in the slammer, something tells me that adding another layer of background checks will be largely ineffective, they'll just go through other routes!
(And the felons that haven't received that training are usually felons because of softer crimes, like I stole $15k, the kinds of guys we really don't need to worry about too much.)
Now, with all of that said (because I couldn't resist, and I should have), I think we're dancing with the political devil here topic wise, and probably, err no, NEED to be more careful