Reply #55: Same penalty as currently applies to licencees who sell to felons [View All]

[slackmaster]

I think it's a potential 5-year stay in Club Fed.

I mean all transfers of modern firearms. I think it's safe to carry on with the tradition of not using background checks on antiques, muzzle-loaders, etc. Certainly all modern handguns. And I would apply the penalty to someone who sells a gun to his brother who later turns out to have a criminal record unknown to the seller. To put it another way, clarify that it is indeed a crime to sell to a prohibited person whether you have an FFL or not, and make use of NICS a "definitive defense" should it turn out you actually sold to a bad guy unless other evidence is found that you knew, e.g. you knew he or she was a drug user.

The output of a NICS check is simply thumbs-up or thumgs-down, the latter meaning the prospective buyer is already known by the federal government to be prohibited from owning a firearm.

I think the key to getting effective gun control passed is to ensure that truly law-abiding people are neither penalized nor restricted in any way for which there is not a clear, measurable benefit in public safety.

If I had a gun to sell and lived in a state where private transfers were unregulated (unlike CA), I would hate like hell to find out some stranger I sold to used it to rob a children's ice cream store for drug money. The only way a seller in such a state can presently avoid that possibility is to sell only to well-known people or sell to a dealer, either of which is likely to result in a lower sales price than one can get on the open market.