From an NRA Legislative Alert: This week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control advocacy group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), began running television ads urging Congress to "close the gun show loophole." Page 34 of MAIG's Blueprint for Federal Action on guns says that the group supports H.R. 2324 and S. 843 -- bills that would require NICS checks on private sales of firearms at gun shows, and which also contain provisions designed to drive gun shows out of business.
MAIG's ads claim "The Columbine school massacre ... killers got their guns because of a gap in the law, called the 'gun show loophole.'" And in a related press release, MAIG claims "All four guns used in the Columbine shootings were bought from private sellers at gun shows."
The claims are lies, of course. For starters, one of the Columbine criminals' four firearms was not acquired at a gun show. More to the point, however, the other three firearms, while bought at a gun show, were bought for the criminals by a straw purchaser -- a woman who was not prohibited from possessing or acquiring firearms, and who therefore would have passed a NICS check, if she had bought the firearms from a licensed dealer.
CATP comment: “You can’t regulate behavior such as people committing straw purchasing of firearms for those who are prohibited by law from buying or owning such as criminals or people under the legal age.”
