My Proposal

So if banning guns isn’t the answer, how can the problem be solved? I believe that we can make great strides towards a safer society by doing two things. The first is to make sure that existing laws are enforced. The second is to make several minor changes to existing gun laws to make them more effective.

The first thing we must do is to better enforce the laws that already exist. A 2003 report by Americans for Gun Safety reported that 20 of our nations 22 gun laws are not enforced. There is a major lack of enforcement of laws involving illegal trafficking, theft of firearms, corruption of gun dealers, lying on a background check form, obliterating serial numbers on firearms, selling to minors, and possessing a firearm in a school zone. We must work to enforce these laws where it is practical and will do the most good. I believe this could be done effectively in the area of dealing with corrupt gun sellers. It is proven that one percent of all gun dealers sell guns that are connected to about 57 percent of crime with guns (Horwitz). These corrupt dealers do business that is not appropriate, such as selling without conducting background checks. These suppliers are often are the main source for other illegal arms transfers. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, also referred to as the ATF, is able to identify these dealers that are being unlawful. They are able to tell this based on “guns stolen from inventory; missing federal sales records, needed by police to solve crimes; having ten weapons a year traced to crimes; frequently selling multiple items to individual buyers; and short times between gun sales and their involvement in crimes” (“Statistics”). The ATF uses these factors to identify corrupt dealers, but is currently unable to enforce the law on these dealers due to lack of resources and support from Congress. Congress needs to give the ATF more authority to enforce existing laws on corrupt gun dealers. This would be a major accomplishment to stop the one percent of gun dealers who are unlawful and would greatly decrease the number of illegal guns being funneled into the black market.

In addition to enforcing existing laws, we need to adjust some of the laws in order to create a safer society. One of the problems that exists with our current background checks is that the information used is often out of date. Updated registries are necessary in order to complete an acceptable background check. I propose that the federal government put plans in place to give incentives to states with updated registries. This will create jobs at the state level and will keep information current enough to complete proper background checks in a timely manner.

Another law that needs to be changed is our current law regarding background checks at gun shows. Currently, only licensed gun dealers are required to run background checks on their buyers. According to this law, any private sale of guns by a non licensed dealer is not required to follow standard background check procedures. This begins to create majors problems in the area of gun shows. Gun shows are large events where gun owners and enthusiasts meet in order to see, sell, and purchase guns. At these shows, nearly half of the gun sellers are not licensed dealers. This means that they are currently allowed to sell guns to anyone that is willing to buy them; no questions asked. This is possibly the most worrisome fact of all. Criminals and terrorists have been taking advantage of this loophole for several years now. The gun show loophole is how Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were able to obtain the weapons they used in the most deadly school shooting this country has ever seen. Even as minors, they were able to go to these gun shows and purchase heavy weaponry, without passing a background check.

Even more troublesome is another story out of a Middle East Intelligence Report. According to this report, Hezbollah member Ali Boumelhem was arrested in November of 2000. Boumelhem had been under investigation for several months by the FBI. He had been attending gun shows in Michigan and purchasing firearms and parts from unlicensed dealers. He attended the gun shows simply because he knew about how easily the current loophole could be exploited. He was a convicted felon and would not have been able to pass a background check given by a licensed dealer. He was convicted of seven counts of weapons charges for attempting to ship weapons and ammo to Lebanon. This is not the only case of terrorism exploiting this law. There have been many similar cases with other terrorists. This is why the gun show loophole must be closed.

We need to monitor gun shows closely. Gun shows should be approved federally and background checks should be run on every buyer. Every gun sale that happens at a gun show should be following the same standards as buying from a licensed dealer. This would close the loophole and would prevent people from having such easy access to purchasing guns.