Reader's view: Gun maker supports requiring background checks at gun shows
For every sweep of guns off the streets, more guns emerge. It’s like bailing water from a leaking ship. Those doing the bailing, the police, do their job well. They confiscate about half a million illicit guns annually. Regrettably, the ship’s carpenters, Minnesota legislators, fail to plug the holes.
Guns flow into the illicit market like water into a leaking ship. Mere bailing does no real good. The holes must be plugged to staunch the flow.
One such “hole” is the illicit purchase of guns from unlicensed sellers at gun shows. (Not that sealing any one hole solves things, but the “gun show loophole” is a good place to start.)
Having exhibited at about a half-dozen gun shows, I can testify that most gun show exhibitors’ time is spent staring at the walls or at their watch. Doing background checks gives them something to do. And the few dollars earned performing background checks should be welcome. The notion that universal background checks will stifle gun shows is misinformed.
Background checks are quick and easy; 92 percent are completed within 10 minutes (while a good bit of the remaining 8 percent shouldn’t be completed at all because the prospective buyer has raised a red flag in the process).
They’re also effective; since New York passed a universal background check law, about 90 percent of their illicit guns come from out-state sources.
Ultimately, the other “holes” such as gun theft, straw purchase and universal background checks for all gun purchases need to be addressed at the federal level. But since most such initiatives begin at the state or local level, there’s every reason to support a gun show background check bill for Minnesota.
Brent Gurtek
FRENCH RIVER
The writer is a gun maker.
Nice that he wants to throw the rest of us under the bus to boost his business...
:banghead:
