Gun Background Checks 4473
(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Progressives have been good at winning the language battle in recent years — particularly by manipulating language to evoke certain images and to lead to their desired conclusions. A prime example is their use of the word “loophole,” defined as “a means of escape, especially: an ambiguity or omission in the text through which the intent of a statute, contract, or obligation may be evaded.” When someone accuses another of exploiting a loophole, he implies that the other is escaping some legal obligation, exploiting a technicality to violate the “spirit” of the law. …

Oregon’s Measure 114 has recently captured public attention as it claims to seek to “end a loophole in federal law.” This particular “loophole” refers to the federal law that allows a firearm retailer to transfer a firearm to a buyer if the federal government fails to expediently process the legally required federal background check.

When you buy a firearm from a licensed retailer in the United States, you are required to undergo a background check. That check is administered by the federal government through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The check, as the name implies, is supposed to be instant. And, under the same federal law that created the system, if that check languishes for more than three days, the purchase and transfer can go ahead. This isn’t a loophole that retailers or buyers are exploiting. It is an important check on the system that was intentionally included in the law to accomplish a legislative purpose.

The three-day limit does two things. First, it incentivizes the federal government to maintain an expedient system to ensure that peaceable people can purchase constitutionally protected firearms within what Congress determined to be a reasonable amount of time. Second, the time limit prevents the government from weaponizing the background-check system. Without the limit, the government could simply delay background checks indefinitely as a means of preventing firearm sales.

By labeling the three-day limit a “loophole,” gun-control advocates and politicians are hijacking the negative connotation that people naturally associate with that term. “Loophole” evokes a sense of unfairness and exploitation, when, in reality, this particular provision is a deliberate check on the system. It is not an omission by the law — it is a feature of it. …

The real problem is that gun-control advocates don’t like the law. Labeling everything the gun-control movement doesn’t like as a “loophole” is a tactic — a tactic to take advantage of people’s presuppositions and to advocate for broader and vaguer laws across the nation. People should be free to buy and own the tools that they see fit to defend their lives, loved ones, and communities. We shouldn’t fall victim to this ploy of bending language in pursuit of policy goals.

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57 COMMENTS

  2. “loophole” originally meant – a small opening through which small arms may be fired.
    Someday soon, we may be reverting back to utilizing that context.

  3. When you grant all your opponent’s assumptions and he still looks like an idiot, that’s when you know he’s got nothing.

    Let’s pretend it is a “loophole”, that laws are made to be enforced, and that there really are background checks that take more than three days (even though the system worked just fine in 1994 when computing power, databases, and networking were several orders of magnitude worse). Easiest thing in the world, right? Buyer pops as a Prohibited Person on Day Five, issue a warrant based on the conclusive written evidence he was stupid enough to provide, and bam! “But what if he kills on Day Four?!” If that were really a problem, the documented statistics would be powerful evidence / the centerpiece of the antis’ case – but they never are. How many times has that actually happened? I’m guessing zero.

    • Their arguments are designed to sound reasonable to the uninformed and / or shut down the conversation. They aren’t interested in logic, honesty, or realistic problem solving. The only problem they want to solve is more power.

      “Trans” apologist: There are intersex people!
      Abortion apologist: Women will die giving birth!
      Gun control apologist: Loopholes!!!

      • Dude,

        “Their arguments are designed to sound reasonable to the uninformed . . . ”

        Hear, hear!! Trying to have a discussion with a “gun control” zealot. The “discussion” will be a real-life embodiment of “A tale told by an idiot; full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” They are addicted to terms that have no concrete meaning, when they use actual, real-life terms they ALWAYS use them incorrectly, they’ve apparently never heard of things like cause and effect, or ‘correlation doesn’t equal causation’. They babbly endless fake statistics, appeals to emotion, appeals to authority, and plain babbling idiocy.

        You can’t ‘debate’ with people like that. I’ve tried debating them, I’ve tried persuading them, but as the man said, you can’t reason someone out of a position that they didn’t arrive at through reason. For the time being, we appear to have a SCOTUS that at least somewhat supports the 2A. I suggest we take that and run with it. Repeal the NFA, the GCA, and abolish the ATF.

        The Leftist/fascists will be back, again, as they always are, because they aren’t happy if they’re not making someone else as miserable as they are.

    • I recall two high profile cases of late where the buyer should NOT have been approved for the purchase. One was te dirtbag punk wo sjot up his fiormer high school in Broward COunty Florida, killing quite a few. The other is the dirtbag who went and shot up the church where his former Wife was a member, Sutherlnd Springs Texas. BOTH had “disqualifying” behaviour known to LE for a long time, but NO REPORT was made ti NICS. thus they both r3turhed “approve” codes and “legally” bought their murder tools. Both had multiple felony chargesand restrining orders against them.

      WHat “loophole” will our “betters” design to prvent THESE sorts of purchases? If my maths are on the mark, a total of some forty people are now dead because NICS was not provided the critical relevant information.

      • Wasn’t Sutherland Springs caused by the (Ch)airforce not supplying appropriate information to NICS? Those cat videos must have been really “important” that day.

      • Right – the only loopholes are failures of government to use the tools provided, NEVER a lack of tools in existing law.

    • Lets not forget, if he pops as a prohibited person after 15 minutes of Day One, you issue that same warrant and put him away for 5 years, as advertised! That is NEVER done, and has never been since day one. I will guarantee there would be precious few attempts to fool the system if that were the result, but the only result has been “no you can’t buy the gun”.

      • Yet another example of the above: there are no loopholes in the law, only in application / enforcement.

  5. ftf cash no bc is not a loophole, it’s freedom.
    in regards to plumpster’s awb, “i understand that lawsuits will follow.”
    so why waste time and money?

  7. Like the “gun show” loophole. Having a class 3 FFL used to mean I could buy used arms as a collector and sell extras off to other collectors. Just about the time I really got interested Ca ruined it by making sure I had to pay the fees to an FFL to transfer a firearm. I was kept from buying a crate of Mosins to handpick the best.
    This has ruined collecting for many people.

  10. Life would be so much easier to be a Leftist where all the power structures are rigged in my favor. Alas, being an engineer, I can’t deal with the illogic of the Left so I must continue to suffer as a conservative.

  11. Have a little faith, people. When Republicrats take control of all three branches of government, in 2024, they will rollback all the bad legislation Dimwitocrats enact. Always happens; that’s the way “the system” works.

    • Sam, if the Republican Party, and gun owners don’t get their fingers out of their butts, we will being doing this back and forth routine with the different anti-gun states and the courts for a long time to come.

      • “…we will being doing this back and forth routine with the different anti-gun states and the courts for a long time to come.”

        Since gun control laws are simply legislation, thus we must accept a never-ending fight. The struggle will only end when the SC declares that 2A is, indeed, absolute.

        • any sentient being, having read BRUEN, would be thoroughly justified in so stating. However, no sentient beings make policy decisions for the outlaw gun grabbers.
          Perhaps a mental diagnosis would be in order……. maybe there is some strange Vie Russ floating about in the vapours these days…..

        • We ordained and established the Constitution for the United States of America so we could create a Supreme Court that would rule that, indeed, the Constitution was the law of the land. Pretty sneaky, huh?

  12. In reality the 3 day limit is way to short. There have been cases where criminals and nut cases purchased guns because the Feds did not have enough time to track down their prior records. When you consider how long the NFA background check takes that alone should tell you something about how the system should really be run.

    • How many days should a background check take for voting? How about freedom of speech?

      Why do you fascists love poll taxes on civil and human rights?

    • You know, ‘dacian’, there is some very bad things on the internet that no one should be allowed to see, like child smut or the instructions on making devices like the Boston b o m b e r s used to slaughter innocent people..

      So, I’m sure you would agree that it’s perfectly reasonable that the government should see a list of every website you visit, and the right to inspect your computer if they have any concerns with what they might find.

      After all, if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Would you agree?

      Right? 🙂

      • to Geof

        quote————After all, if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Would you agree?——-quote

        I find it amusing that you would think I would not know that you were trying to bait me but I guess this one is too good a chance to pass up.

        Yes, people do have the right to privacy but no Constitutional right is unlimited and even the power mad disingenuous courts have admitted that one more than once. 2A does not give you the right to build an atomic bomb or buy machine guns across the counter etc, etc,

        If you want to remain as private as possible than do not apply for a permit to buy a gun. The safety of society trumps any absolute freedom of privacy when one wants to purchase a deadly weapon. Just as one cannot yell fire in a theater for the fun of it when it will result in injury or death to innocent people nor should anyone be able to purchase a deadly weapon without going through a thorough background check. Sane people who are not suffering from advanced paranoia, like the demented far right, have no trouble understanding this as its on the 5th grade level.

        Every civilized nation on earth vets all gun purchases as well as having safe storage laws and some require mental tests as well. Their systems work far better than our lack of such sane laws and their much lower homicide and mass murder rate prove it beyond all doubt, at least when it comes to sane people understanding this.

        I might add that blue states with tough gun laws have lower homicide rates than red states even though the sly, crafty, disingenuous far right cherry pick out the big cities and scream that their homicides are more ignoring the overall rate of the blue state as a whole which is actually lower than the red states where any nut case can buy a second hand gun without paperwork.

        Europe is still awash in firearms, even with tough gun laws, so your sly attempt at baiting me on the privacy issued did not work. It only proved that you, like most of the far right, suffer from advanced paranoia.

        • The safety of society trumps any absolute freedom of privacy when one wants to purchase a deadly weapon.

          Oh Dackie Boy you’ve done it again. Same mouth different hoof.

          READ that Constitution about which you so erroneously blather on. Let’s start with the bit about the one and only one thing identified as being “necessary for the security of a free state”. You should realise what “that thing” is by now.Yet YOU state above that the state is what provides security. WRONG. NOWHERE is that task ascribed to government. government IS charged with protcting our RIGHTS, including our right to arms. Then WE THE PEOPLE take those arms and use them to presrve “the security of a free state”.

          Get it right You don’t have it yet.

        • From someone who wants to murder at least a third of the population to bring equity, equality, and for the good of society. It will a brief windfall for those who get a share of the loot. The collapse of the economy is another matter to be resolved through show trials and more executions. Your kind keep using the same playbook.

        • To Tionicrazed

          quote——-READ that Constitution about which you so erroneously blather on.———”

          You have that backwards as it is ‘you’ not I than rant on and on about constitutional rights. In reality the constitution gives you zero rights. Rather it is the legislatures and the corrupt courts that actually give you what little rights you do have, not an aging yellowed piece of paper sealed under glass, which neither government body seems to abide by when it reduces their absolute power or wealth.

          And if you had any reading comprehension I mentioned court rulings not what the constitution necessarily said.

        • You have the right to build a nuclear bomb, what will get you in trouble is the PLUTONIUM or URANIUM component..

          High School students have built nuclear bombs and they have been confirmed operational except for the one missing ingrediant!!!

          I would say nuclear weapons are covered by the 2nd cause some are “BEARABLE”!!!!

    • NICS is a database. That means that within that system ALL the necessary information resides. The delays ONLY come when there is a near match for name. BUT the data provided on 4473 is NOT properly filed and utilised. I know a guy with a fairly common front name and back name. His middle name is less common. He was born on a given date in a specific city. He often gts flagged as DELAY beause the idiots that set up the ID gates failed to have EACH FIELD cross-checked. How can James John Smith born in 22 Sept3mber 1965 in Boston possibly gt “confused” with James Robert Smith born in 17 February 1971 in Cleveland get confused? I kniw hich school kids could fix that. But we have to pay the big bux to some useless federal trough feeders to keep it messed up.

      Does anyone here recall any situation where someone got their gun after the thre day wait elapsed, then took that gun and went out to kill someone with it? Anyone Oh the crickets are deafening this morning.

      • This is where the social security number is supposed to fix the common name problem..

        I found out recently there are over 100 people in my state with my first and last name, and that a dozen have the same middle name or initial!!!

    • dacian, the DUNDEARHEAD. 1) Your vaulted background checks are NOTHING more than a computer check to see if the buy has a criminal record. That’s it, that’s all.
      2) There is NO REAL BACKGROUND check.
      3) Much of the information contained in the data base called NICS is inaccurate in that many courts do not inform the FBI of convictions and/or dismissals.
      4) as another poster pointed out to your sorry posterior, most of the “DELAYS” are caused by similarities in the name of the buyer as opposed to the information in the data base usually caused by errors made by the person entering the data into the system to verify the ability of the purchaser to buy the gun.
      5) The USA is a very civilized nation. If you don’t like it here, maybe it is time for you to move? Most of us are sick and tired of your misinformation you post here.

      • A database like NICS is _NOT_ Minority Report. It is only as good as the data it contains. An old IT maxim: Garbage in, Garbage Out.

        Much like the data used by GOSSPLAN to organize the Soviet era economy. The data used by that could be described as hopeful or fanciful at best. Even worse if they used the propaganda numbers because the real numbers were a state secret.

      • Dacian is a BRITISH SUBJECT and loves being a SUBJECT and not having to think for him/her/them/theyself!!!

        And he/her/them/they is a “PAID TROLL”!!!!

    • dacian the demented dips***,

      I am once again forced to ask, “Are you stupid, or are you a liar?” Of, course, the answer is that you’re a STUPID LIAR. When NICS was adopted, 3 days was considered AMPLE time to run on online check . . . back in the days when computers ran at speeds AT LEAST an order of magnitude slower than they do, today. NFA background checks take how long they take because of INTENTIONAL bureaucratic footdragging – those mouthbreathing, knuckledragging feds and bureaucrats don’t WANT us to have those items, whether we pass their damn background checks, or not.

      And the “failures” in the NICS system are ENTIRELY caused by bureaucratic error (umm, that would be the SAME damn government you think is so great and efficient) or simply not entering required data into the database.

      Go fornicate yourself, dacian the demented . . . it’s the only sex you’ll ever get.

        • I haven’t “gone there” (yet), Southern,

          Although I do take pains to point out their mutual (along with jsled and Prince Albert) daily circle jerks.

          But with the way they act, your story may be more credible than mine.

    • Patent crap. The entire intent of the law was that if checks were not being done on time, and anybody actually thought they were useful in any way, you apply more resources to the system so they are done in time. We just funded 86,000 more government agents with guns, how many are going to performing background checks? Not a single one? That tells you the value of background checks, precisely zero, they have never accomplished a thing.

  13. Classic manipulation of the language by the Left.

    Loopholes, election interference, speech/violence.

    “If it weren’t for double standards, the Left would have no standards at all.” – Chris Plante

  15. @Dude
    “We ordained and established the Constitution for the United States of America so we could create a Supreme Court that would rule that, indeed, the Constitution was the law of the land. Pretty sneaky, huh?”

    As it stands, the Constitution is the law of the land….as interpreted by the courts and the media.

  17. Anti-gun people call COMPLYING with the law a “loophole.”

    For example, the “bullet button” in California.
    California placed restrictions on rifles with detachable magazines, defined as magazines that could be removed without tools. So manufacturers complied with the law by coming up with the “bullet button” that required a toold.
    New York politicians said, “No fair! You’re exploiting a loophole!” even though they’d written the law, and the manufacturers had complied with the law.
    So Commiefornia banned bullet buttons, too.

    When states like NY and CA passed “assault weapons” bans that banned pistol grips on riles, some manufacturers came up with AR-15 stocks that didn’t have a pistol grip.
    New York politicians said, “No fair! You’re exploiting a loophole!” even though they’d written the law, and the manufacturers had COMPLIED with the law.
    So NY State banned the compliant stocks, IIRC.

    The same thing happened in some states which banned pistol-grip stocks but not thumbhole stocks. When manufacturers COMPLIED with the ban on pistol-grip stocks by making thumbhole stocks, politicians called it a “loophole” and banned thumbhole stocks.

    And don’t get me started on when New Jersey banned magazines over 15 rounds, and as soon as magazine manufacturers COMPLIED with the ban by making 15-round magazines, New Jersey lowered the limit to 10 rounds, with no grandfather clause, so we had to destroy our magazines or take them out of state!

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  20. It’s amazing anyone listens to these people anyway. All they ever do is exaggerate, lie, threaten people, and work for foreigners and try to repeal the Bill of Rights. Most, if not all, are traitors. None of these should be enjoying the freedoms of life in the USA since they despise it so much.

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