Want to Buy a Gun Without a Background Check? Armslist Can Help.

[JaneyVee]

In 2007, US Air Force Academy graduate Jon Gibbon saw a television interview about Craigslist that got him thinking. The online classifieds site had decided to reject ads for firearms, and Gibbon thought he had spotted an opportunity. "When I heard them say that they decided to ban all gun-related ads because a few users cried out for it, it inspired me to create a place for law-abiding gun owners to buy and sell online without all of the hassles of auctions and shipping," he told Human Events in 2010.

So Gibbon hooked up with his academy buddy Brian Mancini, and two years later the pair launched a website they thought was destined to fill a natural void in the online marketplace: Armslist, a website devoted specifically to the private sales of guns and related gear. The site allows private sellers to offer guns for sale to other private purchasers. Buyers can contact sellers via phone or email to set up the sale, and avoid going through a federal background check or even leaving a paper trail. Such transactions are more anonymous than purchasing a weapon at a gun show, where people who can’t pass a background check can buy large quantities of guns.

Armslist quickly took off. By 2011, it was one of the largest online gun sites in the country, with more than 13,000 active listings for firearms. The site also had another, more dubious distinction: Weapons obtained through the site have been tied to the murders of four people and one suicide. An undercover New York City investigation (PDF) found that the site likely was a major conduit for illegal gun sales. Investigators discovered that 54 percent of the sellers they contacted through the site were openly willing to sell firearms to people who admitted they couldn't pass a background check (which is a felony, incidentally).

Armslist isn't the only online gun site in the country, but it's by far the biggest, especially after KSL.com, a news site owned by the Mormon church, stopped taking gun ads after the Newtown shooting. These sorts of online operations are a primary target of proposals from President Obama that would require background checks for every gun sale, even private ones. When New York City took a look at the online gun marketplace in 2011, it found more than 25,000 weapons for sale on just 10 websites, making the internet a significant component of gun industry. The report suggested that the internet sales were likely tied to a fair amount of crime.

The rest: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/want-buy-gun-without-background-check-armlist-can-help
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Shutting down the secondary markets would make a huge difference.

[kudzu22]

1. So it's Craigslist for guns

This is one of the reasons I've advocated for NICS background checks to be available to private sellers on a voluntary basis. Nobody wants to sell to a murderer, but they're not allowed to run a background check under current law.

[nick of time]

2. I've said it many times here,

all firearms transactions/transfers need to have a mandatory background check, no exceptions.
That one measure alone would greatly reduce the number of prohibited persons from getting firearms.

[Bay Boy]

4. I agree...

...I just wish someone would tell me how it would work or what it would cost.

[nick of time]

5. I think that all background checks should be done by an FFL holder

with a nominal fee of, say, $10-$15.

[dballance]

8. I Agree But I Just Don't See How to Capture Private Sales

Even if we implemented a gun registry, which is not very likely anytime soon, the likelihood of a game warden catching a hunter with a gun that was not registered or was not transferred in the registry to them upon private sale is very slim. It's not like our registration of cars. There are tons more LEO officers who are able to monitor cars than there are game wardens monitoring hunters and people get away with unregistered vehicles all the time.

[nick of time]

9. I agree.

There's always going to be unseen flaws in any new laws passed, hopefully, as time goes on, those flaws can be identified and rectified.

[TheMadMonk]

10. It's called the Sword of Damocles. Huge penalty...

...for the simple possession of an unregistered firearm. With appropriate safeguards for dealing with grandad's just discovered WWII souvenier Luger.

Possession in conjuction with a crime ie. drunk driving with one in the boot, bigger penalty.

Use in commission of a crime. plus plus plus jail time.

It's how the Japanese do it, and to a lesser degree we here in Australia.

Result, almost all no gun crime at all in Japan, and most of what we have to deal with is machismo driven.

[HockeyMom]

3. Get somebody with a CCW permit,

preferable a spouse or relative, let them buy the gun, go through a background check (which they have already done), and then give you the gun as a GIFT. Gifts are not subject to background checks. Loophole who could drive a Mack Truck through. Been there, done that.

[sarisataka]

6. You might want to clarify your post

unless you are wanting to admit to having been a straw purchaser

[HockeyMom]

11. That is the point

IS it a straw purchase? A gift of a gun is a legal in Florida. They SAY that the person receiving the gift must be a legal recipient, but that is an honor system totally dependent on the purchaser of that gun. That is a lot of TRUST, don't you think?

[Lurks Often]

7. More uneducated reporting

If a firearm travels across state lines it must go through an FFL

If a firearm is sold within a state in a private transaction it is subject to the relevant state law, which varies from state to state.

Anybody breaking the law should be prosecuted and sent to jail.

Likely the real reason for the growth in internet sales is the ability of a person to legally sell a firearm and get a fair price for it. FFL dealers normally offer about 60-70% of the actual value of the gun, that way when the FFL re-sells it, it allows them to make a profit. Going through the internet allows the seller to get about what the gun is really worth and for the buyer to spend a little less money then if he had bought it through a retail FFL.

Again, anybody breaking the law should be prosecuted and sent to jail.