virus gun store sales
(AP Photo/Russell Contreras)

In an article titled “Dangerous Gaps in Gun Laws Exposed by the Coronavirus Gun Sales Surge”  the Center for American Progress went on at some length regarding their belief the COVID-19-related gun sales spike proves there are too many loopholes in gun laws:

Just as the coronavirus pandemic has exposed gaps within the U.S. health care and economic systems, the surge in gun sales during this period brings to the forefront weaknesses in the current laws and systems governing the sale and ownership of firearms and ammunition. Far too many gun sales are allowed to proceed without background checks, and gun owners face minimal legal requirements to ensure that guns are handled and stored safely.

What loopholes are they referring to in what they claim is non-partisan reporting? First claim say there’s a problem with the NICS system:

…the current system contains serious flaws that allow guns to continue to be sold without background checks, undermining other crucial gun safety laws, enabling gun trafficking, and stymying efforts to solve gun-related crimes. These flaws predate the current surge in gun sales; however, the increased volume in sales is putting unprecedented pressure on the system and exacerbating its weaknesses.

First up is the three days the FBI has to run a background check. As you all know, once three days passes, if there is no definitive answer on the background check, the FFL can make their own judgment call on the gun sale.

That isn’t exactly true everywhere, though. In Wisconsin, for example:

The Department of Justice has five days to approve or deny. And if for some reason a firearm is handed over before the background check is completed, the Justice Department contacts both the local police department and the ATF to recover the weapon.

According to CAP:

If the FBI has not concluded the investigation after three days, the seller has the discretion to proceed with the sale despite the lack of an affirmative finding that the individual is eligible to buy a firearm. These sales are called “default proceed” sales.9 The default proceed sale process has become known as the “Charleston loophole” because it allowed the shooter who committed a horrific hate crime in 2015 at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to obtain his firearm.10 Allowing gun sales to proceed without a completed background check enables individuals who are prohibited from gun possession to evade the law and buy guns.

CAP also gets into private sales, lack of mandatory waiting periods, and the usual gun control talking points But they go a step further expressing their desire for mandatory training on a national level:

…there are no requirements that a prospective gun owner must demonstrate any level of proficiency with a firearm and no mandates on how guns should be stored or carried to prevent against theft and unauthorized access. Again, these concerns predate the coronavirus pandemic. However, the current influx of first-time gun buyers raises new concerns about the thousands of new gun owners bringing deadly weapons into their homes without the proper supports to ensure that they are able to do so safely.

Then, of course, there’s safe storage:

A 2018 study found that roughly half of all gun owners store at least one of their guns without any lock or secure storage device, and a national survey of gun owners conducted in 2015 found that an estimated 4.6 million children in the United States live in homes that contain an unlocked firearm. However, this problem is exacerbated by the influx of first-time gun owners who may not have availed themselves of training programs or safe storage devices. While federal law does require licensed gun dealers to offer gun locks at the point of sale for every purchase, it places no onus on the gun owner to actually use them.

Did the pandemic theater we’re currently experiencing somehow do something to thrust guns into the hands of more criminals? No, it did not. Does the federal background check system fail often? No, it does not, and when it has, the errors aren’t as simple as this article makes them sound.

One thing I will say is that if the existing laws regarding gun sales were actually used properly, that would be fine. Laws, however, are imperfect and subject to human error. Just because a mistake is made does not mean there was malicious intent. And those mistakes are extremely rare in this particular system.

As for mandatory training and safe storage, it isn’t the government’s business to meddle how Americans choose to use and store their firearms. Should people be properly trained? Yes. Should you all be using good safes and storing your firearms responsibly? Of course. But getting the government involved is a slippery slope to random mandatory home inspections, increased restrictions on concealed carry, hunting, and more.

That, of course, doesn’t concern the deep thinkers at the Center for American Progress, whose claim of being non-partisan is laughable at best, but should concern gun owners. When you take the bait of “well sure, we do need gun owners to be trained” and invite the government to handle it, things always go sideways.

Trying to say that the coronavirus has made all kinds of problems with gun sales laws come to light is ludicrous at best. But then it really comes as no surprise opportunistic organizations and individuals are using the pandemic to push their agendas. What is it CAP wants? More restrictive gun control.

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52 COMMENTS

  1. There should be training for organizations like cap to exist.

    yeah, it sounds just as dumb doesn’t it?

    • And the training is worthless if it is not blindingly EXPENSIVE! With weekly refreshers. And offering an opinion while non-current on the refreshers is a $50,000 fine and a year in jail, plus lifetime prohibition on offering an opinion.

      • What’s wrong with a BS in Sociology? I’ve got one, but I digress. Half of gun owners have at least one gun they don’t lock up. Yup, it’s our EDC gun which does us no good locked away. Mine’s never more than 18 inches away.

        • You don’t lock your doors in rural Texas?

          I had heard that there were caravans of dangerous criminals, rapists and murderers coming from south of the border and yet you don’t see the need to lock your doors.

          No waves of ankle biting anchor babies?

          What about the platoon sized narcotrafficker units, hauling major weight on their back across the Rio Grande with calves the size of cantaloupes?

          No stumbling herds of COVID-19 zombies, dripping with green glowing putrescence?

        • Love the satire!

          Reality is there is little need to lock up anything in rural Texas. Sure, there are Criminals. But they mostly target each other. A career in crime is way more dangerous and way less profitable in a small community than in major cities like Chicago, NYC, San Fran, or evening Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Austin. Like any profession, you gotta go where the money is ya know?

  2. Only loopholes around are the loopy aholes who haven’t read the Constitution and want Americans disarmed.

    • Loophole vs feature:
      If I don’t like it, it’s a loophole.
      If I like it, it’s a feature.
      This short guide is intended to help people navigate the rationale behind this type of story. You now know that if the word “loophole” appears in a headline, then the story is written by someone who doesn’t like the underlying activity.

  3. “Did the pandemic theater we’re currently experiencing somehow do something to thrust guns into the hands of more criminals? No, it did not. ”

    But Antifa and BLM are being armed by someone. Given the number of them who seem to be convicted felons, I don’t believe those guys can buy their own either, except for the few who had the brains and ambition to remain unemployed and indoors so they could continue watching cartoons until age 40 or so.

    • I mean, there’s literally video of that Raz guy handing out ARs to random kids on the street. It’s on the social medias, labeled as “empowering local youth” and whatnot.

      Haven’t heard about him being arrested, being charged, along with all the other CHAZ people who held Capitol Hill hostage.

    • What happened to all the “personal defense weapons” and ammo bought by the federal government during previous admin?

  4. These liberal “thinkers” have no idea of how a firearm transaction works in the real world. They believe in all of those loopholes that they have read about in some other anti-gun publication.

    • Downunder there were groups who kept claiming our gun laws were too lax and it was too easy to buy guns.

      When put on the spot, NONE knew of the current process of permits to purchase, and the process to acquire a license. The one person who did know something described the processes from the late 1980s. They were surprised when they found out how much had changed.

  5. All of these surge numbers are for NICS checks, right? Like, literally every firearm transfer they describe went through a background check – that’s the point of NICS. So as long as you’re getting NICS numbers, there’s no loophole – it’s the NICS-involved system running (poorly) as designed (poorly).

  7. Gun controllers work hard at making gun ownership and gun buying a form of social deviance that is divorced from what “normal” people do. Our constitutional rights guaranteed by the 2nd. Amendment are a central component of the revolutionary philosophies that define American liberty and freedom. Deconstructing liberty and freedom and turning it into wrong-thought is a typical example of how progressive-fascist dogma attempts to create its essential police-state mentality. Our founders knew that it is not at all easy to take freedom and liberty away from an armed citizenry that is capable of defending itself.

  9. As you all know, once three days passes, if there is no definitive answer on the background check, the FFL can make their own judgment call on the gun sale.

    Many, if not most, LGSs will not proceed unless and until they get a definitive answer. Not worth the hassle or risk, especially now when they have no problems moving their inventory.

    • California requires 10 days and you have to put down the model of safe.

      But seriously, “shall not be infringed” means nothing! I cannot obtain a carry permit in LA county.

  10. “The Center for American Marxists went on at some length regarding their belief the COVID-19-related gun sales spike proves there are too many loopholes in gun laws.”

    There appear to be too many loopholes in the republic regarding treason and said Marxists.

  11. “Progressives grasp at straws…suffocate wondering why they can’t breathe and think at the same time”…this assumption proves that a dangerous loophole exists and must be dealt with.

    My statement has as much science and constructive logic behind it as the “deep” thinkers at the Center for American Progress used to reach their inane proclamation…!

    …and the stupidity continues unabated…

  12. OK, I just don’t get all this hoopla about safe storage. After reading so much about safe storage rules, and specifications, and all the whatever, I went out and bought a gun safe (a little one to be sure, but the box said it was a gun safe).

    After the purchase, I locked the safe in a storage room in the basement. Nothing. I unlocked the storage room in the basement. Nothing.

    The damn thing just sits there in the dark, doing nothing. What’s the point? Are there rules about where safes are stored, so they actually do something? Should I lock the safe in the bedroom closet upstairs? What’s the deal?

    • much of this depends on whether you share your dwelling with others…I live alone and have one stashed in every room….even the bathroom, which makes sense when you think about it…none of them are in plain sight but easily and quickly accessible….

  13. I guess I was out the day they taught all this when I studied the constitution. I’ve read it since, must be a hidden damn paragraph someplace

    • “I’ve read it since, must be a hidden damn paragraph someplace.”

      No….it’s just common sense. You can’t let the constitution stand in the way of common sense. C’mon, Man. Are you some fat dog face pony soldier?

  14. The constant push for safe storage mandates really irritates me. I keep 1 of my many firearms (before the boating accident, of course) in my nightstand. All others are secured unless I’m using them because that’s the responsible thing to do and I don’t want them stolen if someone happens to break in. How am I supposed to defend myself when I can’t quickly access my gun? I don’t have kids, and my dogs don’t have thumbs. If I had kids in the home, I’d probably get one of those quick access single gun safes, but why insert an extra step when I don’t need to? How about you stop worrying about what I do in my own home when it doesn’t affect you, mkay?

    • But it does affect them. They know you’re out there somewhere, being free and uncontrolled, and that knowledge scratches away at their psyche like meth bugs.

    • it starts with making your house more secure…alarm system, cameras, dead-bolt locks and security lighting…safe storage of your excess guns is a good idea…I also display a lot of replica guns around the house as decor items…but this has the added benefit of confusing any burglar or anyone else who might want to grab one….

  15. In Illinois it can take up to eight months to get a FOID card, and if you do buy a gun, it has recently taken up to two weeks to get approval in my personal experience. Illinois does not count weekends, holidays or the first and last days of the procedure. As you all know, this has reduced the shootings in Chicago by a substantial amount. (Sarcasm) A felon recently got out of jail and had a gun within six days. No FOID or background check for him.

  16. When people call for mandatory training, the reply should always be to institute mandatory firearms familiarization in public high school. After all, age 17 marks induction into the national militia. Watch them react with horror at the thought.

    Because they don’t really want universal training, they want more obstacles to gun ownership. Which is exactly the same reason why they invariably react to any increase in the number of people jumping through their hoops with demands for more and higher hoops.

    • “When people call for mandatory training, the reply should always be to institute mandatory firearms familiarization in public high school. After all, age 17 marks induction into the national militia.”

      I absolutely agree with this! Start with decent pellet rifles, develop safety and marksmanship skills, then move into firearms, advancement based on proficiency testing.

      And I think it should be followed by something like a two-year national service obligation. If you don’t want to serve in the military, there’s always EMT/fire, building/maintaining trails in national parks and forests, etc.

      If someone has a valid medical condition (no bone spurs allowed) they could be exempt from service, otherwise, we have a place for you somewhere, from daycare to smoke jumping.

      • So, one of our resident fascists (1) believes in involuntary servitude (we have a VOLUNTEER military for a reason, jackass), and (2) believes the gummint is competent to train people to do anything.

        Any other thigh-slappers you want to drop on us, fascist?

  17. IF the government made up scam on a Human Rights(NICS) is not working lets get rid of it 100% NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Asking ur servants for permission is stupid!

    There are NO Restraints that can be put on a God Given Natural Right Codified in the Constitution!

    Its time to deport half of America ASAP!! Sharks gotta eat too….

  20. Real simple way to counter arguments like these, any “reasonable” restriction on the second amendment should be able to apply to the first or the fourteenth or the ninetenth.

    /Begin Sarc

    Eg. Law Enforcement discretion aka “good reason” should apply to voting rights. You might vote for the “wrong” candidate. The fate of the free world is too important to “allow” you to get a voting permit. Only the wealthy and well connected should decide such things.

    There should be a tax on each copy of news stories that are downloaded from your website. This to serve the victims libel or slander. It is a “small price to pay” and is a “common sense” answer to this problem and “does not infringe” on anyone’s rights.

    I support the nineteenth amendment BUT I do not think what is happening today is “what the founders intended”.

    All journalist devices ( i.e. printers, cameras, microphones) should be registered. All journalists should be able to pass a proficiency exam in journalism and be aware of all the laws on the first amendment in their state.

    /End Sarc

    I could do this all day, but you get the picture. Always push back on these people. Respectfully and logically when possible, by any other means when practical.

  21. So, they’re bugged that too many people are getting too many guns under the current laws? It’s like their goal isn’t safety, but simply keeping people.from having guns.

    The mask slips again.

  22. Interesting to analogize gun ownership to an infectious disease.

    – Health systems work against diseases, to contain them; gun laws n policy…?

    – Getting a contageous disease carries risk for others; having a gun…?

    – Having a disease is ptetty near entirely bad; having a gun…?

    – A disease happens to you, then does things to you; a gun…?

    Never argue on their terms. If they frame the conversation, it’s always a setup. Never, ever accept gun ownership or use described in terms of disease.

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