Last week I received a reply letter from my State Senator, Debbie Regala, per the letter I dropped off at her office on the day of the SB-5197 hearing. Here is a copy of the letter that I gave to the committe which was hearing the bill. That letter closely resembles the one I gave to the Senator.
I’m going to put her reply letter to me and the letter I just finished sending off to her in blockquotes below the fold, because we both get a bit wordy.
Enjoy
Dear Phil,
Thank you for contacting me about the sale of firearms. I do, however, support SB 5197 and HB 1026. In every state that traced at least 500 gun crimes in 1999, most if not all of the top sources of out-of-state crime guns were states that do not require background checks at gun shows.
Law-abiding citizens will still be able to purchase guns at gun shows. Convicted felons, however, will not be able to do so. If a gun is sold at a gun show and subsequently used in a crime, this bill would provide law enforcement with the information needed to trace the crime gun and identify those who may have illegally provided the gun to the criminal.
This does not infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms nor is it unfair to those who sell guns at shows. This bill would apply existing state and federal laws equally among all commercial venues where guns are sold. It requires that unlicensed persons who sell guns at gun shows follow the same procedures that licensed dealers must follow when they sell guns at those same shows. The National Instant Check System, the mechanism by which background checks are done, is virtually instant: 72 percent of background checks are completed within several minutes, 95 percent within two hours and only one in 20 background checks last more than a day.
SB 5197 and HB 1026 simply place those who sell at gun shows on the same playing field with those who sell them in retail stores. It does not affect private transactions between individuals that are not conducted at a gun show.
Sincerely,
Sen. Debbie Regala
27th Legislative District
Dear Senator Regala,
Thank you very kindly for your reply letter. Your fellow members of the Washington State Legislature, 27th District, could learn a lesson from your prompt reply.
I see that you care deeply about this issue, as do I, though I am not quite sure where you see that SB 5197 and HB 1026 will have any effect on the number of firearms being put into the hands of criminals.
The statistic you mentioned from 1999 lists only states without background checks at gun shows, but does not positively identify that those firearms were purchased at gun shows. Certainly, during the February 8th hearing, neither Senator Tom, Senator Kline, Oregon Senator Jennifer Burdick or Seattle Police Chief Kerlikowske were able to mention even one crime in any state which was committed or a criminal in any state that was captured with a firearm that was purchased at a Washington gun show.
This is not because we do not have the information from the NICS checks at gun shows.
As was mentioned by Joe Waldron of the Washington Arms Collectors, also during the Feb. 8th hearing, the prosecuting attorneys working with the Project Safe Neighborhoods program cannot even remember when there was a gun show purchased firearm used in a crime. This federally funded program specifically questions criminals who commit crimes with firearms as to where they procured their firearm. Not not one criminal statewide has said that they bought theirs from an anonymous private seller at a gun show, even though they have a huge incentive to lie and say that they did so as to save their real source.
Likewise, the recently released FBI funded study “Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation’s Law Enforcement Officers” found that, nationwide, absolutely none of the weapons used to attack officers over the study’s five year period were purchased at gun shows.
I would ask that you take a moment to ask Senator Tom about a statistic that both he and Chief Kerlikowske brought up during the hearing. This statistic puts the number of NICS denials; felons, people convicted of domestic assault, people with current restraining orders, etc, in 2006 from licensed dealers in Washington State at just over 2400.
Please ask Senator Tom: Out of these 2400, how many were arrested for their attempt at purchase?
These people know for a fact that they are not allowed to own or purchase firearms. They have also knowingly committed perjury on a federal form moments prior to the NICS phone call being made (as well as once on a state form if the purchase is a handgun).
We have their name, address and a current description of the person, if not a video recording of them in the act. But most importantly, we have knowledge of their intent to purchase a firearm.
Yet, using a little inside information from members of local law enforcement about the number of arrests from NICS denials, I can tell you that the percentage of the people arrested and charged for committing the crime of attempting to obtain a firearm is frighteningly low.
I again ask that you please speak to Senator Tom, and ask him why he says that it is criminals buying firearms which he worries about, but then goes to focus new legislation on the law abiding citizens selling at gun shows, all the while ignoring this substantial hole in the system.
It is a moral wrong to say one thing and do another, especially when it includes attempting to enact binding legislation. But that was exactly what Senator Tom and Chief Kerlikowske were doing when they used that statistic at the hearing on February 8th, 2007, and that is what SB-5197 and HB 1026 represent.
These bills are bad legislation, plain and simple. They have not even a toehold worth of statistical ground to stand on and absolutely zero moral ground. And if the law cannot be moral, than it sure isn’t much of a law, now is it?
My apologies for the length of this letter as compared to my last one, but I still feel that your support for SB-5197 is saddening.
Respectfully, Your Constituent,
Phil
Here is a link to the mentioned FBI study. Definitely worth a read-through.
And here is a link to Project Safe Neighborhoods. It disgusts me probably as much as it does you, but if we’re going to pay for these programs, I’m damned sure glad to use their statistics to debate with.