McCain-Reed Gun Show Bill: All Trick, No TreatIntroduced, appropriately enough, on Halloween, the McCain-Reed-DeWine-Lieberman gun show bill--S. 1807--masquerades as reform but imposes bureaucratic restrictions aimed at eliminating gun shows. It is based on the McCain-Lieberman bill (S. 890) from the 107th Congress, and like its parent, fails to address gun owners` most significant concerns and fails to fix real problems of the national instant check system.S. 1807 is not about closing a "gun show loophole"--there is no "gun show loophole." Existing laws apply at gun shows just the same as any other place guns are sold. A tour of any gun show demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of guns offered for sale are from federally licensed dealers. Guns sold by private individuals (such as gun collectors selling a gun or two over the weekend) are the distinct minority. If someone claiming to be a gun collector is actually operating a firearms business and does not have a Federal Firearms License (FFL), he is guilty of a federal felony--every separate gun sale constitutes a separate federal felony.S. 1807 is about eliminating gun shows. It would give any Second Amendment-hating Attorney General the power to effectively shut down gun shows, invade the privacy rights of American citizens, and impose many other restrictions that have nothing to do with conducting background checks on firearms purchases.S. 1807 creates gun owner registration. "Special firearms event operators" would have to submit names of all "vendors" to the Attorney General both before and after the show--whether or not any of the vendors even sold a gun. A private citizen who enters a gun show hoping to sell or trade a firearm, does not make a deal and leaves with his own gun, would be on file in a U.S. Justice Department ledger forever as a "special firearms event vendor." Copies of the ledgers could be used for any future purpose.S. 1807 turns casual conversations into "firearm transactions." A person who sees a gun offered for sale at a gun show, decides against buying it, then months or even years later changes his mind and contacts the seller, would still be subject to the background check requirement. This unworkable system would even apply to a gun that was discussed at a show without being exhibited. Any realistic, enforceable background check requirement must be limited to sales at an actual gun show, during the gun show, of guns that are present at the show.S. 1807 imposes limitless regulations. The phrase "in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Attorney General" and similar language occurs throughout the bill. Show operators and vendors would have to comply with unknown regulations that could become as broadly restrictive as any future anti-gun administrator desires.S. 1807 requires unnecessary new bureaucracy, creating "Special Firearms Event Operators," "Special Firearms Event Vendors" and "Special Firearms Event Licensees." And, there is no deadline for issuing the "Special Firearms Event License." In response to abusive gun dealer license enforcement, Congress has required that FFLs must be issued/denied within 60 days, and that the application may only be denied for a specific list of reasons. This basic due process protection is absent from McCain-Reed.S. 1807 does not provide for true instant checks, and its "24-hour" wait is a smokescreen. The bill provides that the wait "may" be reduced to 24 hours--if a state applies for the privilege after improving its records. But with no real incentives for states or the federal government to improve records, there is no reason to think that the 24-hour check would ever be achieved. And with a three-business day period still allowed to check out-of-state records, a few large states could drag down the whole scheme for all transfers across the nation.S. 1807 gives no priority to gun show checks. Gun show checks should be expedited over others, simply due to the temporary nature of the events and the distances both sellers and buyers travel to attend.S. 1807 makes no instant check improvements. Unlike S. 890, the bill provides no funding for criminal history upgrades.Most importantly, S. 1807 ignores the facts--multiple federal government studies prove gun shows are not a source of "crime guns."The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 2001 report "Firearms Use by Offenders," the largest such study ever conducted by the government, found that less than 1% of U.S. "crime guns" come from gun shows. A 2000 BJS study, "Federal Firearms Offenders, 1992-98," found only 1.7% of federal prison inmates obtained their gun from a gun show. A National Institute of Justice 1997 study, "Homicide in Eight U.S. Cities," reported less than 2% of criminal guns come from gun shows. S. 1807 isn`t about controlling crime; it is about controlling free speech. The attack on gun shows makes no sense as a crime control measure. It is strictly driven by an anti-gun political agenda. Closing gun shows means shutting down one of the most important venues for Second Amendment activists to communicate with other gun owners. That`s the real goal.Posted: 11/4/2003
By Jim PateGun shows in the United States--as John McCain and the former Clinton Administration staffers at Americans for Gun Safety (AGS) explain it--have suddenly become an irresistible magnet for foreign terrorists.These terrorists regularly sneak into shows, the McCain/AGS claim goes, to exploit a "loophole" in federal law and buy large numbers of guns. This hogwash is being sold to the American people in a slick ad campaign funded by New York City billionaire Andrew McKelvey.McKelvey founded AGS and spends millions every year in a personal crusade to restrict Second Amendment rights. Operating with unaccountability, his agenda includes efforts to abolish gun shows, federally regulate all gun sales between private citizens and register all law-abiding gun owners.Despite all McKelvey`s expensive ads, the gun show "loophole" argument ignores the fact that federal laws already prevent criminals--and that word includes terrorists--from going to gun shows and buying firearms, everywhere in the country.And, despite the ad blitz, the idea that Osama bin Laden and other terrorist bosses overseas arm themselves with small arms bought in the U.S. makes as much sense as Alaskans having ice flown in from Florida.Peshawar, Pakistan, located only a few miles from Afghanistan`s busiest border crossing, is one of the world`s most notorious cash-and-carry gun markets. Machine guns are common. One can send a 12-year-old boy with a few $20 bills to the bazaar to buy an AK-47 as easily as an American mom sends her child out for a loaf of bread.Hand grenades are available, as are surface-to-air missiles and rocket launchers. Leftover U.S.-made Stinger missiles from the CIA-sponsored war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan have moved through the same black market.Unlike U.S. gun shows--where licensed dealers must do the same background checks and fill out the same federal forms as they do when selling a gun in a store--Asia`s gun markets are infamous for cash-and-carry transactions. Anyone of any age who has the money can buy, no questions asked.This begs the obvious question: If Middle East terrorists can get more guns--not to mention more powerful weapons--faster and cheaper at home, why would they risk coming all the way to the United States to stand out like sore thumbs at a gun show?The answer is they wouldn`t. But those who hate gun shows and what they deride as "America`s gun culture" are hoping logic won`t apply as they seek to exploit public fear over the possibility of additional terrorist acts. McCain likely will attach his gun show bill--S.890--as an amendment to other legislation in January, possibly the homeland security bill. In the anxious climate of a wartime home front, its chance of passage is much improved."It is critical that NRA members and anyone else who doesn`t want to see gun shows become a thing of the past get to their friends and start working the phones," said Jim Baker, ILA Executive Director. "We don`t have much time. Everyone should let their U.S. Senators know they oppose this cynical attack on our rights."In a win-at-any-cost zeal to renew attacks on the right to keep and bear arms, the gun-control camp acted quickly in the aftermath of September 11 to exploit the nation`s intense emotional turmoil. Osama bin Laden swiftly replaced the Columbine killers as the talisman by which to substitute emotion for fact in public policy debate.AGS "fact" sheets deliberately distorted cases of alleged foreign terrorists buying at U.S. gun shows. These "misinformation" sheets have been regurgitated almost verbatim by gullible news reporters.USA Today trumpeted three cases taken from the AGS releases, including that of Ali Boumelhem, a Michigan resident linked to the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Convicted one day before the September 11 attacks of conspiring to smuggle guns and ammunition to Lebanon, he has become the AGS poster boy in McKelvey`s zeal to spread the lie that gun shows are a steady source of guns for foreign terrorists.AGS mischaracterized FBI testimony. The bureau, which had Boumelhem, a convicted felon, under surveillance for months prior to his arrest, saw him shopping at three different gun shows in Michigan. He also was seen unloading "weapons and explosives" in Beirut. The implication, of course, was that these were the same items purchased at gun shows in Michigan.AGS`s source was The Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, which was much more specific about the Beirut sighting than the AGS release. The bulletin reported that Boumelhem was seen "unloading shipments of automatic weapons, explosives, grenades and rocket launchers," which are not sold at gun shows anywhere in this country.AGS also trotted out the case of Muhammed Asrar, a Texas shop owner from Pakistan who, USA Today reported, "was arrested in an investigation of the September 11 attacks." Omitted was the fact that the probe failed to link Asrar with the terrorist attacks, and there was no indication that he ever shipped guns overseas or bought them for any reason other than personal protection."He pleaded guilty to immigration violations and illegal possession of ammunition," the newspaper reported. "The Pakistani store owner said he had bought handguns, rifles and a submachine gun at gun shows since 1994." The report failed to note, however, that submachine guns can`t be bought at gun shows, so if Asar`s claim is true he should have been prosecuted on a more serious charge, violating the National Firearms Act.Another "terrorist" case AGS cites is that of Conor Claxton, an Irishman from West Belfast, convicted for using a straw buyer at a Florida show to purchase guns that were mailed back to Ireland. Contrary to claims made by AGS and McCain, Claxton, who was sentenced to four years in prison, was nonetheless acquitted of the specific charge of smuggling to the Irish Republican Army.McCain, McKelvey and their cohorts conveniently fail to mention the most important aspect of each of their examples. In every case, the system worked--the violators were arrested, tried and convicted. Convicted felons face a possible 10-year prison sentence just for walking into a gun show. Federal law already prohibits non-resident and illegal aliens from buying guns.They may respond that it is the private sales between individuals at gun shows that pose a potential threat from terrorists. But if the goal of would-be terrorists is to procure firearms in quantity, it would be difficult to do so through private transactions unless the seller was willing to commit a federal felony by "engaging in the business" without a license.In the end, the deceit behind this campaign to further restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens serves more than a corrupt political agenda. By extension, it lends support to those who hate America`s freedom and seek to destroy our way of life.Posted: 2/15/2002
