Banning the non-existent
Illinois has decided to close a loophole that doesn’t exist. The governor has signed a law requiring “unlicensed [gun] dealers” to conduct background checks on potential purchasers. The problem is, there’s no such thing as an unlicensed dealer — either you are a dealer (in which case, you should be federally licensed) or you are a private seller (in which case, you need not be). There’s some question as to where the dividing line between those two categories should be, but if the BATFE thinks you’re a dealer and you aren’t licensed, they will try to put you in jail.
The term unlicensed dealer doesn’t have a hard and fast definition and is subject to wiggle room (and abuse, in some cases) by the ATF.
July 31st, 2005 at 12:01 pm
I’m not sure I understand the “nonexistence” here. Either you are required to have a license, or you’re not. Under federal law, if you’re not required to have a license, and don’t in fact have a license, you are not required to conduct background checks. Now, in Illinois, you are. That may be a good or bad idea, but where’s the “nonexistent” part?
July 31st, 2005 at 2:27 pm
The non-existance of unlicensed dealers. to be one is already against the law, since it’s illegal. But the illinois statue states unlicensed dealers, not private sellers, should do checks.
July 31st, 2005 at 3:51 pm
Actually, I’m not sure what the statute says. The newspaper article says unlicensed dealers. This could easily be a error on the reporter’s part rather than the actual language of the statute.
July 31st, 2005 at 7:19 pm
You can actually read the legislation here. It does a couple of things.
First, it defines gun shows as an event where 50 or more guns are sold or offered for sale by not less than 10 vendors. Incidently, in Illinois, a “Gun show” does not include training or safety classes,
competitive shooting events, such as rifle, shotgun, or handgun
matches, trap, skeet, or sporting clays shoots, dinners,
banquets, raffles, or any other event where the sale or
transfer of firearms is not the primary course of business. ”
Second, the bill defines a gun show vendor as a person who sells a gun at a gun show, whether they are registered with the gun show promoter or not.
Third, they require anyone who is not a federally licensed dealer who wishes to sell a gun at a gun show must request that the State Police conduct a background investigation.
All in all, considering what state this is happening in and who the party’s invovled are, its not nearly as bad as I would imagine. Sure its a pain, but I would think they would have tried something much more dramatic if they could.