Gun Shows Concern Me

[redstatebluegirl]

We have gun shows in our state almost weekly it seems. The news covers them, you see people coming and going. I think we have to figure out how to check the people who buy at these shows, there should be a waiting period just like there is when buying from a dealer. Some of the people I saw interviewed were so angry with the government it scared me.

Not throwing stones at the legal sane gun owners, but every group has it fringes and the fringe of that group is dangerous. Just look at James Yeager.

[onehandle]

1. Timothy McVeigh virtually lived at gun shows. He was heavily influenced by them. nt

[Recursion]

2. I get that, though ending gun shows won't make those people go away

Even in the states that don't require background checks for private sales at gun shows, at least they're happening in one place that people can keep an eye on, rather than at yard sales and classified ads (which no state requires background checks for at any point).

If it's any comfort, licensed firearms dealers still have to perform background checks at gun shows, and in some states private sellers do too.

[PSPS]

3. Homer Simpson: "Waiting period? But I'm mad NOW!"

[dmallind]

4. Can't disagree about the clientele

The background checks would be great, but constitutionally questionable as it is intrastate commerce. Gun owners have long pushed for open access to NICS so likely little resistance to a way to get that.

[Recursion]

6. That's what's so frustrating: everybody wants private access to NICS

But our side can't even find a way to describe the problem without picking a fight. Sigh.

[Hoyt]

11. Background checks need to go through FFL license holder to ensure proper paper work AND

that the NICS is not used by some private citizen to check on a neighbor or someone else (having nothing to do with guns). That is, there's a privacy issue that can't be addressed if anyone can pick up the phone and see if so-and-so has something in their background that would preclude them from buying a gun. That needs to go through a person authorized, trained and accountable for use of the system.

Yep, it will add to the cost of selling a gun for a fistful of cash in the back alley, or a table at a gun show. But, if gun owners are serious about giving a crud who buys their lethal weapons, it's the only way to go.

[Recursion]

12. Exactly

But rather than make progress on this we bring in "gun shows" because they scare suburban people but have nothing to do with this weakness in the current law.

(Alternately to your idea, you could also just have a generic red light/green light/yellow light system with no additional information available for private sellers.)

[Hoyt]

14. Here is why people are "scared" of gun shows.

Folks lined up outside Atlanta gun show only one week after Sandy Hook to buy so-called "assault" weapons:






Do you really want folks like this in your neighborhood?


I've thought of the green/yellow light before. Unfortunately, your neighbor can find out that you can't buy a gun, so you are either a felon, had some mental issues in past, etc. That's not good. And Joe Blow ain't gonna keep proper paperwork. So, I think it needs to go through FFL or police or something. Besides, I don't think it is the job of the federal government to provide a ready market for those who have accumulated a bunch of lethal weapons.

[Recursion]

15. Is there a reason I shouldn't want people like that in my neighborhood?

*shrug*

Those guys look pretty much like my neighbors?

[Hoyt]

16. Well, I guess your neighborhood is not very diverse, and the neighbors have a sick sense of timing.

Sorry that you think a bunch of yahoos lining up to buy assault weapons one week after Sandy Hook is normal. Several were interviewed by the newspaper, and their comments indicated they were under-educated at best. But, I guess some people get a kick out of showing their buddies their new Bushmaster, "just like the one Lanza used to kill. . . . . . ."

[Recursion]

17. If something I wanted stood a good chance of being banned soon I would probably buy it too

I don't like having guns (they take way too much time and effort to keep clean), but if I did I could see doing that. For that matter, I wouldn't even have to think the guns were about to be banned, I would just have to think that enough people think the guns are about to be banned that there would be a run on them.

[Hoyt]

18. The callousness in this society is really ugly sometimes.

[Daemonaquila]

22. Those folks are half my neighborhood in a rural town in a red state.

And I'm not at all afraid of them.

They're people like anyone else, they just have weird priorities.

[redstatebluegirl]

21. Not disagreeing but

I was raised in a rural area where everyone hunted, my Dad had guns to protect our livestock. I may be "suburban" now, but wasn't raised that way. Our guns were secured and my Dad didn't use an AK 47 to chase the predators away from our stock.

I do not think all "suburban people" are clueless .

[tblue]

5. Did you see Jon Stewart the other night

On guns? It all boils down to placating a tiny group of paranoiacs who CLING to their guns like babies to a blankie. It's crazy. I'm sorry there's all those gun shows near you. I would hate it too.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. What does Illinois have to do with anything?

[hack89]

9. That is where the poster lives. nt

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. No, she doesn't. n/t

[hack89]

13. You are right - saw home town but not current location. nt

[spanone]

19. alex jones, the face of the paranoid scared the crap out of me....

[redstatebluegirl]

20. Yeah he scared me too!

I guess I'm just scare easily....not crazy about the country I live in sometimes....

[Mojorabbit]

23. He scared me also

Almost everyone I know is armed and none of them are like that.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

24. Any guns sold by licensed dealers at shows do have beckground checks performed.

What we need to make sure ALL the private sales go through those same background checks as well.