What again is the point of background checks/waiting periods?

[grimjaw]

So I recently moved to WA to OH. I bought several handguns while in OH, and was only required to fill out the lovely yellow form. However, it's more difficult to get a concealed carry license in OH, so I waited until I moved to WA.

So I buy my first handgun in WA, and there's a five day waiting period. The handgun is a single action, six shot, .22 revolver.

I already own nine handguns of equal or greater caliber. What does a waiting period for this (or any) handgun accomplish?

I'm sure this has been rehashed over and again on this forum, but I thought it was kind of silly. I could shoot 1000 rounds between now and next Friday, and the waiting period wouldn't have accomplished a blessed thing.

jmm

 

[KriegHund]

Waiting period, i cannot see the reason it it.

So a criminal will suddenly wait 5 days to do his plan? or perhaps he will buy the gun five days BEFORE he commits it.

Maybe its to prevent impulse killing...oh...wait...he either already has a gun or a knife or a baseball bat or a car.

backgrounds checks...no comment.

 

[carp killer]

What does a waiting period for this (or any) handgun accomplish?


It gets the American public use to the idea that laws controlling firearms are harmless inconvienences. After all, you eventually will get your gun, right? What's a little wait?

Remember the frog in the pot............

 

[Rob1035]

According to Larry Elders, waiting periods are there so law abiding citizens can be vulnerable for a period of time.....I tend to agree.

So a criminal will suddenly wait 5 days to do his plan? [snip]

you forget, only law abiding citizens go through waiting periods and background checks. Criminals get to cut through the red tape.

 

[Lennyjoe]

The migraters from Cali brought that law up with them.

 

[Scottmkiv]

I think the antis know that the more of a hassle it is to own firearms, the fewer people will buy them. Then, they make up some reason to justify their pointless hassles.

 

[Zundfolge]

The stated purpose is so that someone doesn't "snap" and go buy a gun and kill people ... yeah, pretty silly, and pretty pointless.


The real reason for mandatory background checks is so that some day they can stop people from buying guns by shutting down the background check system (right now they are required to automatically "pass" you if it takes more then 72 hours for the check. If they can do away with that then they will succeed ... I expect the next step after that will be to suspend background checks during times of "crisis", then there will be intermittent "blackouts" and eventually a complete shutdown of the system).

The real reason for waiting periods is to get us used to waiting periods (and eventually X guns in Y time restrictions) ... I believe that eventually the plan is to increase the waiting period from 5 days to 10 to 30 to 60 to 90 to 365.



Its called Death by a Thousand Cuts.

The more difficult they make it for people to buy and own guns, the less people will ... the less people buy and own guns the less people care about gun rights and the easier it will be to repeal the 2A (or "regulate" it out of existance).

 

[Alex45ACP]

Yup. It's just another step in gun control incrementalism.

 

[grimjaw]

I may not agree with it, but the background check seems more useful than the waiting period. I don't know if I'd had my concealed pistol license if could have skipped the waiting period or not. That statutes are probably different.

I just found it a little ridiculous.

jmm

 

[afasano]

I think the antis know that the more of a hassle it is to own firearms, the fewer people will buy them. Then, they make up some reason to justify their pointless hassles.

Everyone needs to fill out a form too, so when congress, the president and the court get on the same page they can finally round them up.

 

[0007]

Harassment of law-abiding citizens...

 

[Lupinus]

Im fine with a background check. But felonies should be devided into different catagory's when it comes to whether yo ucan buy a gun or not. If I have a felony for something liek speeding, that shouldn't disqualify me from buying a gun. If I have a felony for anything non-violent, I should be able to buy a gun. Now if I beat someone half to death with a wrench, I should not have a gun. If I beat someone half to death with anything, I should not have a gun.

Background check I am fine with. There should be a license program so that you can by-pass it if you want to. Getting it would be a convience for speeding up the process nothing more, you could go the current route and have a backround check done everytime you buy a gun.

But waiting period's? Waiting period's are stupidity. There is no reason to make me wait around to get my gun if I am licensed or have cleared a background check. All it does is annoy people and make the process one more step of annoyance so less people will bother buying a gun. If I want to kill someone and didn't own a gun I can think of much simplier cheaper and easier ways to do it then getting in my car driving to the gun shop and shelling out a few hundred buck's for a gun then driving all the way back and hoping my victem is still there.

Maybe next there will be a waiting period on kitchen knive's. If oy udon't already own a gun picking up a kitchen knife would be far easier then findign a gun at a gun shop.

 

[Nail Shooter]

If someone wants to kill a spouse that badly ("crime of passion") I'm sure the urge will come up again after the waiting period is over and they have the gun--same w/ robbing a bank etc.

Absolutely no logic or way to defend these asinine laws for people who already have a gun in their possession.

 

[TrapdoorBilly]

(right now they are required to automatically "pass" you if it takes more then 72 hours for the check. If they can do away with that then they will succeed ... I expect the next step after that will be to suspend background checks during times of "crisis", then there will be intermittent "blackouts" and eventually a complete shutdown of the system).

If you are talking NICS the 72 hours you reference is actually 3 business days. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are not business days so if you have a Friday or Monday holiday they actually have 6 days or 144 hours. Also it is not an automatic approval, the firearm may be released with a status of no resolution. We frequently get calls after the 3 business days with a denial. If the firearm has been picked up this has to be reported and the information is passed on to the local ATF folks.

As to the times of "crisis", every time we get a system down notification I turn on FOX news to see if anything is going on, so I do think your suspicions there have some merit.

Get ready for a new and "improved" form 4473 coming to you Monday October 17th.

 

[Janitor]

Background check I am fine with. There should be a license program so that you can by-pass it if you want to. Getting it would be a convience for speeding up the process nothing more, you could go the current route and have a backround check done everytime you buy a gun.

I believe that giving them time for a "normal" background check is the actual primary legal reason for the waiting period.

I think the stated reason might be so that any crimes of passion would be commited with a garrot, knife or credit card rather than have someone purchase a gun to commit the crime.

I believe the real, underlaying honest reason is one people keep bringing up here, and that's creeping incrementalism. Get the fenceline sitting majority used to these small thefts of rights from the public and they may not notice it happening.

WRT "licenses to buy" - In MN, you can get a buy permit from your local police department that's good for a year. You'll get the card in five days after making the (simple) application. With that, there is no waiting period (other than the standard NICs check). A CCW license can be used the same way.

 

[Zach S]

Speaking of the new 4473s, why did they change the color? White forms just doesnt have the same ring to it as yellow forms did.

 

[Molon Labe]

Waiting periods are simply harassment of gun owners. Pure and simple.

Want to know something that's really ridiculous? Let's say you already own a handgun, and you wish to purchase another. You would think they would be exempt you from the 5-day waiting period if you can prove you already own a gun. But this is not the case; you are subjected to the 5-day waiting period no matter what.

 

[TrapdoorBilly]

Speaking of the new 4473s, why did they change the color? White forms just doesnt have the same ring to it as yellow forms did.

I guess so 'we' dummies could tell the new one from the old one.

Or better yet, something else to gig you on you next inspection. White used before the 17th, yellow after the 17th.

 

[jamz]

I think it's because guns are inherently evil and the guns themselves need five days to "cool off" before they go out on their own and randomly start shooting people once they've escaped the confines to the gun store.

Heavan only knows what my AR15 is capable of if it wasn't locked in my safe, banging to get out all the time. Thank goodness for the five day waiting period I had to undergo!

Oh wait, I just remembered, I didn't have to.


-James

 

[Mad Man]

According to the ACLU:

http://www.aclu.org/ReproductiveRights/ReproductiveRights.cfm?ID=9045&c=143

Government-mandated delays serve no purpose other than to make obtaining an abortion more difficult, dangerous, and expensive for the women who are least able to bear the burden of an unwanted pregnancy. The harm of such restrictions is felt most by those who have the fewest resources — poor women, minors, rural women, working women without insurance or sick leave, and battered women.

For some reason, they don't apply that logic to other choices people might make.

 

[Lupinus]

I believe that giving them time for a "normal" background check is the actual primary legal reason for the waiting period.

Well in state's with no waiting period you can go to the store select your gun and get it later the same day to my knowlage.

Speaking of the new 4473s, why did they change the color? White forms just doesnt have the same ring to it as yellow forms did

White has a psychological bonus. A yellow form get's people's hampster wheel going that their right's are being pissed on.

For some reason, they don't apply that logic to other choices people might make.

You honestly expect the ACLU to apply logic to anything other then their nutty way's?

 

[Rob1035]

FWIW, in NC, a CCW skips the background check and waiting period involved with pistol permits, so that is a step in the right direction, ie streamlining the process.

 

[XLMiguel]

Wating Periods = bliss-ninney foolishness

Well, I found waiting periods to be helpful in that it gives me time to thoroughly refine my plan so's I won't get caught iffen I absolutely, positively gots to shoot someone/something with a caliber I don't already own

The CDC did a study in 2003 (available at their website) that studied 51 'gun control' strategies that show the none of them had any measureable effect on gun-related crime. Hey, a thug's gonna do what a thug's gonna do, and the reason we call them 'criminals' is because . . . . they don't obey the law. Gun control laws only affect the law-abiding.

 

[rick_reno]

I don't buy enough guns to know anything about waiting periods - but is it possible they went from yellow 4473's to white to avoid the fading problems colored paper has?

 

[rick_reno]

I don't buy enough guns to know anything about waiting periods - but is it possible they went from yellow 4473's to white to avoid the fading problems colored paper has?