The NRA wraps itself around the patriotic message of our Constitutional right to own a semi-automatic weapon. It doesn’t matter to the NRA that 92 percent of Americans, including many gun owners, want every gun purchaser to have a background check regardless of where the gun is bought.
Today if you buy a gun from a licensed dealer you must have a background check. If you buy one at a gun show you don’t. So convicted felons, fugitives from the law, those addicted to unlawful controlled substances, those ruled by the court as dangerously mentally ill, those here illegally, those guilty of domestic violence abusers, those who have renounced their US citizenship, and those who have received a dishonorable discharge can go to a gun show and buy a semi-automatic or any weapon of their choice. No background check required.
In the past 14 years more than 1.5 million people have been stopped from owning a gun because of background checks. But those checks were done by licensed dealers. How many of those 1.5 million went to a gun show and bought a weapon? Maybe the NRA knows? After all, they oppose a background check for every gun purchase.
We do know the NRA is the major lobbyist for the gun manufacturers, whose sales would decrease with universal background checks. Surely that can’t be the reason they oppose this common sense requirement. Does the NRA really think it is patriotic to allow anyone who shows up at a gun show to buy a gun?
Kit Zak
Lewes
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