President Barack Obama is taking aim at the so-called “gun-show loophole.”
Obama’s most recent executive order on gun control attempts to clarify a distinction in federal firearms regulations between gun sales by businesses and guns sales by private individuals.
Currently, federal law requires businesses that sell guns to possess a federal firearms license. That license demands that sellers do criminal background checks on anyone who purchases a gun from them. By contrast, the law leaves personal transactions unregulated.
Is such a distinction warranted?
Defenders insist that background checks on private firearm transfers—for example, between family members, collectors, and gun enthusiasts—would unduly burden the private ownership of firearms. Critics allege that the “loophole” is exploited to sell guns to people who couldn’t pass a federal background check.
Stalemate in Congress
Polls reflect widespread support for universal background checks in the wake of recent mass shootings. This support exists among Democrats and Republicans. Even a majority of gun owners support it. But Congress has steadfastly refused to extend background checks to private gun sales.
Lawmakers most recently refused to pass such a change in December just after the mass shooting in San Bernardino.
The legislative process is intentionally designed to make it difficult to pass legislation over the strong opposition of a minority group. In this case, the extreme wing of the National Rifle Association (NRA) membership has the ear of key congressional players like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley whose support is necessary to advance legislation. The result has been legislative deadlock.
Using an Executive Order
Obama’s executive order is an attempt to bypass this legislative deadlock.
The executive order has been carefully crafted to survive a court challenge. It does not erase the distinction between business and private firearms sales. Rather, it broadens the definition of a business and provides for stricter enforcement of restrictions on business sales by hiring additional personnel to conduct background checks.
Yet, even the president has admitted that the executive order is “not going to prevent every mass shooting.”
There is evidence that unregulated private sales—over the Internet and at gun shows—are a source of guns for individuals who are ineligible to purchase or possess a firearm. However, the weapons used in recent mass shootings in San Bernardino and Umpqua Community College in Oregon were acquired legally at federally licensed gun stores or through private transactions that likely wouldn’t be affected by Obama’s new rules. In other words, the president’s executive order would not have stopped these shooters.
