Oct. 31 Neal Knox Update -- In commemoration of Halloween Sens.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) are scheduled
to today introduce the “Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2003.â€
And according to an email Thursday from Jim Kessler of “Americans
for Gun Safety†to certain Senators, McCain will offer the bill
as an amendment to S. 659, the gun industry liability protection
bill, which could be on the Senate floor as early as next week.
About a week ago Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and
the Republican leadership agreed that S. 659 would be one of four
pieces of legislation (in addition to funding bills and
nominations) brought to a vote in the closing weeks of the
legislative year. The way the Senate works, that doesn’t
guarantee it will.
With 55 co-sponsors, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle
(D-S.D.), and enough commitments to end Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s
promised filibuster of the bill, it's almost certain to become
law -- provided it’s not loaded down with anti-gun Senate
amendments like the latest gun show bill and a reenactment of the
so-called “assault weapons†bill.
I’ve been specifically told -- as recently as a week ago -- that
if the ban on “assault weapons†is attached to the gun industry
protection bill (which the Senate might do) NRA-ILA will kill the
bill if it can’t be cleaned up in the conference or on the House
floor.
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Kessler's email to Senators calls the new McCain-Lieberman gun
show bill a "compromise." It isn't.
It's merely a softer-worded version of the same provisions
included in the bill the same pair introduced in May, which was a
less-burdensome version of Sen. Lautenberg’s gun show killer bill
which passed the Senate in 1999.
The new bill requires “criminal background checks†to be
conducted on all sales at “Special Firearms Events†-- not only
at gun shows but at “any event at which 75 or more firearms are
offered or exhibited for sale.†It wouldn't be just a "criminal"
check, or course, but any disqualifying records -- such as for
mental health problems.
Unlike earlier versions, the bill does specifically exempt
private sales at a collector's home -- providing BATF doesn't
decide he's "engaging in the firearms business" -- and it has a
strange new exemption for sales and swaps between dues paying
members of private hunt clubs. Why no exemption for dues-paying
members of the Houston Gun Collectors Association at their
monthly private meetings?
The operator of a “Special Firearms Event†must have a $200
license, notify the Attorney General 30 days before the “eventâ€
of its time, date and duration, with a list of all “vendors†--
including anyone walking around with a “For Sale†sign stuck in
the muzzle of a shotgun.
Any single-gun "vendor" who showed up at an "event" would have to
be photo-identified and name and address logged by the sponsor,
then shipped to BATF within five days of the event.
While gun show sponsors would obviously know to obtain a license,
how many shoot sponsors would know to buy it, and complete all
the required paperwork, in the chance that two guys on their
range made a private swap when all the guns exhibited for sale
belonged to dealers on commercial row?
Since the bill requires conducting background checks if "any part
of the sale" -- including merely seeing a gun and declining to
pay the price -- occurs at the "event" or anywhere on the grounds
or parking lot of the event, it invites BATF entrapment for a
private transfer without a NICS check days or weeks later at the
seller's home or at a range.
With any bill this complex and confusing there is no way to avoid
big trouble if BATF decided to make trouble for almost anyone
selling guns or sponsoring an event at which a private sale might
occur.
