Contrast with the US:
- No background check in most states to buy a gun from a private seller
This is not uniform, but most private transfers are either 'brokered' through a dealer, and thus involved a background check; or are direct transfers between family members, i.e. father to son. The 'gun show loophole' doesn't really exist, in practice, because a legitimate buyer doesn't want to ever buy a stolen gun; because the penalty for buying a stolen firearm is a bit harsh. Nor does a legitimate seller want to sell to an unknown person, because there is some liability to selling to a criminal, should that weapon be used in a crime.
Florida, as has been already noted, is a bit strange in this regard.
OK, if this existing loophole is never exercised as you claim . . . why not make a background check for all sales of firearms mandatory? As you mentioned, it would really have no impact on law abiding gun owners.
I never did say never, I said that most private sellers do not sell to someone they don't personally know without involving a licensed dealer, for the reasons noted above. If the background check were perfectly free, and failing to pass did not prevent an heir from the
value of a gun collection; I could support a universal requirement for a quick check. However, they are not always free currently & there are still some very big devils in the details. The details would still matter to me.
- No safety training to buy a gun
Not as a legal requirement, but training is pretty cheap overall, and most places offer some basic training "free" with a purchause. And safety training is legally required in many cases, just not universally.
Exactly my point! Since training is so cheap and widely offered, it should be a mandatory part of all gun ownership. It's already required some of the time, it should be required all the time for firearm ownership.
Sorry, but that is a constitutional issue, and would require a constitutional amendment. As it is, it's almost as effective to do it voluntarily. Rare is the person who legally owns a firearm, but doesn't know how the safety works.
- No gun registry
No federal gun registry. States do have them, with varying degrees of completeness. Having a unified gun registry in Washington, DC would be akin to the Swiss registering their weapons in Brussels; or Canadians filing with the British crown. It just doesn't make rational sense, in part because the laws vary significantly across jurisdictions.
There should be a centralized, easily searchable database of all guns and gun owners. Criminals don't mind bringing guns across state lines, there needs to be an easy way to track these weapons. This would help law enforcement crack down on gun shops who sell to criminals. It would make it more risky for a private owner to sell a gun to a criminal. By segmenting the data the way you're proposing, there is no benefit but there is significant disadvantage in terms of police effectiveness, and time/money spent investigating crime.
This would not actually change anything material about law enforcement tracing a weapon used in a crime, because licensed dealers are required to keep records forever. And they are typically on paper, because many of their customers (and themselves) are suspicious that electronic records are too easy to access. I would agree. So the records exist, they are just not centralized. I am not at all concerned about how much manpower the feds require to investigate, they can just hire more marshals
As for a "centralized, easily searchable database". No. I don't want it easy to search. I want it difficult & full of checks and limits, if it exists at all. Just no. This is not negotiable. This requirement will
always kill any otherwise "common sense" regulation that can ever be proposed. No. If you would actually like to see gun owners bend a bit, and give a little towards unifying background check laws nationally, do not include this idea.
- No license for firearm ownership
This depends both upon the state, and the type of firearm.
Yes, but it shouldn't. All firearms sold should require a license. The license would make selling a gun privately much easier, because it would be proof of a passed background check. A condition for the license would be basic safety training.
We need to get something straight here. Your personal opinion about what should or shouldn't be has zero merit in this debate. That said, my concealed carry license ID also functions as proof of a previously passed background check for most weapons, but some still require a quick check with the ATF; and it's voluntary. So what you want can be accomplished, simply by advocating that every gun owner pursue a CCW, and the training comes as a bonus! As a former member of the USMC, I automatically pass the safety rules for almost everything, but I still have to have a phone conversation with an ATF agent anytime that I buy a rifle that is considered "high powered, sniper class". They ask me psych type questions, I suppose to make sure I'm not about to 'reach out and touch someone', since they taught me how. I have bought enough of these to know that this never goes away, so I'm in a national database
somewhere because I'm a military veteran with military grade firearms. The databases exist, quit worrying about them all being in the same place. They will never be completely accurate anyway.
- No regulations related to firearm storage
Varies by state, but the above statement is generally false.
So, are 2/5ths of gun owners with children criminals . . . or are the laws just woefully inadequate regarding firearms storage?
That infographic is bullshit. I thought we all agreed not to post propaganda here, as if it was a legitimate argument.