Whether you are a member of the media or a concerned citizen wanting more information on the “Gun Show Loophole,” welcome.  Congratulations for doing your own research.

Short version:  The “Gun Show Loophole” is a myth.  It does not exist.  It is a political construction with which certain groups hope to be able to end the long-standing tradition (perfectly legal) of gifting a firearm to a son or daughter, selling a gun to a friend, or buying a gun for a wife or husband as a gift. 

Here’s the important thing for citizens -- and especially media: All laws OUTSIDE a gun show apply INSIDE a gun show.  Repeat, there is no loophole in the law for gun shows.   Anyone required to do a background check outside a gun show must do so inside a gun show. 

The ATF (the federal agency in charge of gun sales) reports that somewhere around one percent of crimes are committed with guns which were purchased at Gun Shows.

No, terrorists and Mexican drug cartels do not go to gun shows to get their machine guns, rocket launchers, and land mines.  They have their own military and other countries which supply these weapons of war.

If the noise about the “gun show loophole” is not about crime (and it is not) perhaps the media should be asking what it is actually about.

For more, listen to the podcasts (recordings) of Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk radio show.

MEDIA:  If you are looking for an interview who is not the NRA, and who is not the equally partisan Brady Campaign, feel free to contact Tom Gresham.  Tom has 40 years’ experience writing about firearms and editing national outdoor magazines, 20 years of appearing on national television on firearms-related series, and has hosted the only national radio talk show about guns, shooting, and gun rights.

Gresham’s background can be found here.  Contact him through email.