Reply #62: Rational questions, I applaud you. Here are some answers, I'll try and be rational also..

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

The so called gun show loophole is about private sales. All firearms dealers selling firearms at gun shows perform the same background checks performed at a gun store. Private individuals selling privately owned firearms aren't required to do a background check at a gun show, their house, a parking lot, etc. They cannot knowingly sell a gun to someone legally prohibited from owning one. Many people in the pro-gun lobby here have suggested opening the NICS (National Instant Check System) to private sellers so that those checks could be done on private sales. Clearly checks and balances would have to be put in place to prevent abuse. In regards to "assault weapons", please realize that the AR-15 (semi-auto small caliber weapon that looks like a military M-16) is one of the most popular weapons in the country despite this fact rifles of any type are used in less than 3% of crimes, so assault weapons are very infrequently used in crimes and very often used for target shooting and hunting small game and predators. So given those facts most pro gun people find restrictions on these weapons to be pointless especially considering the last AWB banned weapons with certain cosmetic features primarily and did not affect other weapons with the same rate of fire but without the cosmetic features. Thank you for your polite, rational question. I hope I have provided an answer that sheds some light on the subject.

David