Reply #52: I think that's a very good idea

[Terran]

What kind of liability do you envision for people who fail to do a check and then sell to prohibited persons? Criminal? It needs to be something substantial--people won't bother to use the system if there's no penalty for screwing up.

And just so I understand you, this would apply to *all* gun transfers, right? Public and private? The voluntary nature of it would make it acceptable to most, I would think.

I do know that, right now, full criminal background checks are highly restricted. I don't know if any of you guys have worked in law enforcement; I worked in administrative law enforcement for several years--I was a state controlled substance investigator and then a state securities investigator. We had need for criminal checks in both offices. In the former we were not allowed to access those records directly, we had to call the Highway Patrol and get the results by snail mail. In the latter we had a dedicated terminal into the HP's database, but only one employee was allowed to use it and anyone requesting the data had to sign for the results, they kept such close track of its usage. It may be very different in other states, I don't know, but somehow I doubt it. So I think getting to a point where ordinary citizens can access criminal background info on their fellow citizens is going to take some doing. Not saying it can't happen, but there would be some hurdles there.

Dirk