Gun Show “Loophole”?

One year ago last Friday, Washington State Senate Bill 5343 was introduced into the state Senate and referred to the judiciary for a review of the legalese. Five days later, there was a public hearing on the Regulating the Sale of Firearms at Gun Shows and Events Bill. It was met with moderate force from firearms rights groups and that was that.

It was re-introduced again two weeks ago and there is a tentative public hearing in committee scheduled for tomorrow (and I stress the term “tentative” as the people at the capitol like to switch the dates and times for items, like this one, that will be fought against by professional lobbying groups in the hopes of wearing those groups down. Forget trying to hold a job and attend, your supervisor will kick your ass after the fifth time you schedule a day off and then call in mid-morning saying that you’ll be in because the hearing was cancelled).

The Bill focuses on the requirement that no one may sell a firearm at a gunshow or ‘event’ without having an FFL and that no one may buy a firearm without an FFL or going through the federal NICS background check and then another one done by the Washington State Patrol, who would be stationed at the event.

Yes, you can probably now see where this is going: No Trooper available to run the WSP desk, no gun sales may take place.

SB 5343 is sponsored by legislative members who follow the anti-firearm scare mongers ‘Ceasefire Washington’ (who will receive no link from me) that talk the standard BS lines about how gang-bangers and other dirtbags love to attend gunshows so that they can get the firearms they need to go on crime sprees.

They never talk about how the different show organizing groups in the state require membership to purchase or sell at their shows and that said memberships require background checks (except for one group with a twice annual show). Nor do they talk about the already large number of FFL holders who sell at these shows and are already required to put purchasers through background checks.

If the pro-firearms groups can keep up with the changing hearing schedule, it is my hope that they will once again sqush this bill like the slug it is.