Missing the point: Loopholes in gun laws don't help anyone
It’s hard for me to understand how some things become laws. Now granted, some of those are just antique laws that never went off the books, like how it’s illegal to tickle women in Virginia or my personal favorite, how it’s illegal to hunt any animals except a raccoon on Sundays. Clearly whoever designed that one had some pent-up rage against a raccoon or two getting into his trash. Other laws, or specifically other loopholes, which were created over the last 50 years, just make no sense, especially when it comes to guns.
Currently in this country, it’s legal for a gun dealer to complete a sale, even to someone who’s not allowed to own one. How you ask? Through a tiny loophole in federal law. If a background check isn’t finished in a 72-hour period, gun dealers can go ahead with the sale. If the FBI comes back and says there are issues, it’s too late. The gun’s already been transferred over and now it’s a problem for law enforcement, not the dealer. Sadly enough, this is how Dylann Roof was able to buy the gun he used to attack a prayer meeting in a South Carolina church earlier this year. Roof had originally tried to buy the gun April 11 from a dealer in West Columbia. The FBI received the call from the dealer and didn’t give permission for the sale to go through, saying they needed to check into Roof’s criminal history a little bit more, since he had recently been arrested. Since they didn’t have an answer by April 14, Roof was able to buy the gun.
Now granted, most stores tend to ignore this loophole. Nobody wants the publicity of being linked to any type of crime, if it turns out they sold the gun to someone illegally. Walmart, for example, along with many others, has made it a practice that a gun sale’s not done until the background check comes back. It just makes sense. Why open yourself up to a lawsuit from a victim’s family, when an extra day or two could solve the problem?
But rules aren’t put in place for just big chain companies. As long as the law allows it, all it takes is one independent dealer selling a gun without waiting for the background check to finish. It just takes one person walking home and opening fire to start the attacks, the arguments about how guns are immoral. No, guns are just tools. But, just like anything else, we have to be smart in how we use them. That’s why Sen. Tim Kaine’s new bill just makes sense.
Earlier this week, Kaine introduced the Background Check Completion Act, one of those bills that it’s hard to believe are needed in the first place. The bill would force all federally-licensed gun dealers to wait for a completed background check before selling any type of weapon. Until the background check is finished, the sale doesn’t go through. Period. No loopholes, no exceptions.
No, this isn’t an attempt to take anyone’s guns away. No, this isn’t saying what type of guns we can or can’t own. It just requires everyone to go through the same background checks that you and I had to, when we bought our guns. I mean, doesn’t it make sense to close this loophole and solve the problem? Our knee-jerk reaction as gun owners is always to reject new proposals put through Congress, mainly because you have to question if they actually read through it first before voting. But there are times when a bill actually does solve a problem. I don’t care who the buyer is. If they want to own a gun, they need to go through a background check. That’s just being responsible.
More than that, it’s just time to close all these loopholes, all these exceptions that allow people to ignore the same laws you and I have to follow. Why should someone else get a free pass? It just doesn't make sense.