tl;dr : Fecklessly weak and inadequate.
A bipartisan group of senators released legislative text Tuesday for their gun bill, which includes enhanced background checks for those under 21, funding for mental health and school safety, incentives for states to implement "red flag" laws and limits on the "boyfriend loophole."
The Senate voted 64-34 in favor of advancing the bill on Tuesday night. Fourteen Republicans joined all 50 members of the Democratic caucus to support the procedural motion.
This bill, titled "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," falls well short of what Democrats and President Biden want. But, if passed, it will be the most significant gun safety legislation in decades.
Enhanced background checks: Requires the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to conduct an enhanced review of purchasers under the age of 21 to determine whether juvenile records disqualify that individual from purchasing a firearm. NICS is given 10 days to complete the investigation, and it unsets after 10 years.
FYI, a background check is something already done for any firearms purchase not from a gun show (I believe) in the US (or it is supposed to be done).
State incentives for "red flag" laws: Provides $750 million over five years that will go to states for "crisis intervention programs" including red flag laws, mental health courts, drug courts, veterans’ courts and extreme risk protection orders.
750 million over 5 years, also known as 150 million a year for five years. Mental health courts and drug courts seem to have an annual budget of 105 mill (mental health programs themselves making up something like 2 billion annually). I will point out that their budget in 2012, under Obama, was 101 million.
Appropriates hundreds of millions for mental health and school safety programs, including $120 million over four years for a community mental health block grant program to prepare and train communities and first responders on how to appropriately and safely respond to individuals with mental disorders.
30 million a year. For just four years. To do this at a national level. Just set the fucking money on fire already and be done with it.
Illegal firearm trafficking: Prohibits the straw purchasing and trafficking of firearms by criminals and enhances penalties for possession of firearms by prohibited persons.
"Illegal thing now MORE illegal"
All this bullshit and weak nothing, and dems STILL only got 14 conservatives to vote with them
Sure...but it's not required from private sellers at them (at least not by all states).
So you can have situations where some guy just buys a booth at a gun show and sells off a couple of his pieces to whoever, which does happen (at least in my neck of the woods). I do like the red flag law idea as well, but that's why I didn't really touch on them; it can be used to just screw over people
I believe this is explicitly illegal already, just like you can't sell a gun at your gas station unless you have an FFL. Private person-to-person sales are different and calling them a gunshow loophole is really a misrepresentation since the vast majority of private no-background-check sales happen outside of gunshows.
That's what I am referring to; you don't need an FFL to sell in state, provided you only sell 4 or fewer guns a year (from the above source), and you can sell to an unlicensed resident of the State where you reside as long as you do not know or have reasonable cause to believe the person is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under Federal law
From the ATF. So you can absolutely just set up shop at a gun show and do that; some places prohibit it, and venues can require people to have a FFL, but they don't have to everywhere
I would be shocked to find out that people are renting booths to sell guns without FFLs and are getting away with it.
You might be able to convince the ATF that your booth rental doesn't represent a business and all your sales were private, but I would guess your lawyer would be able to send their kid to a semester of college off the proceeds even if you didn't end up in prison.
I mean, like I said it did happen by me years back; just an anecdote, but it's out there. I do agree that it probably isn't that common.
Originally, FFLs could only do business at their listed address until the mid 1980's, when they were 'permitted' to sell at shows (so it was only private parties at gun shows and none of them had to register for an FFL).
Without a doubt things were way more lax in the 80s... you could still produce and sell full auto guns for most of that decade. I would have to see it with my own eyes to believe private sellers are renting booths at gun shows to sell guns in this century, though.