and all those other little people can just make do on their own.

And if they would open the background check to people who are not firearms dealers it would make an impact on the gun show loophole and private sales.

A secure system of access by private individuals would remove one (small) stumbling block in universal background check systems: the fee charged by FFL dealers to run the checks.

transfer the ownership to a FFL and have the FFL enter the purchase/sale into their record keeping. Then, should the gun show up at a crime scene and be traced to the original owner it would be a simple matter of contacting the FFL for the record of the sale.

Even at that the fee for a transfer is usually only $25 which is a paltry sum to have somebody else be responsible for the check and record keeping.

To the best of my knowledge, the only legally mandated records* an FFL holder has to maintain is the federal Form 4473, the record of firearms transfer. Since they're not the entity actually making the transfer (they never had ownership of the weapon), I wonder if there's any such requirement. The 4473 has always been for original transfer of a new firearm.

If not, then this is an area which needs to be addressed in universal background check laws. I'll take a look, when I have time, at Oregon's new universal background check law and see if there's anything in this area.

* records of firearms, that is...obviously they have other required records, like accounting books, etc.

http://www.knoxnews.com/business/store-will-do-gun-transfers-for-free_73072735

The FFL has to enter the firearm into inventory just as if it came from any other manufacturer/distributor. In effect they "buy" the gun and chain of possession passes to them. Then the FFL "sells" the firearm just as if it were any other piece of inventory meaning they fill out the 4473, run the check and file the form in their records. Money for the transfer ($25) is collected by the FFL and the money for the firearm is between the two people buying/selling the gun.

I'd happily pay someone the $25 to maintain those records and clear me of any responsibility for the use of the gun after it leaves my hands. Sounds pretty cheap to me.

I downloaded the PDF of the Oregon universal background check law, and I'll read through it when I have a bit more time (20 pages, densely formatted...ain't politicians/lawyers grand? =P ). I suspect there are similar record-keeping provisions.

In terms of technical details, whether the FFL is an intermediate owner of the gun or just facilitating the transfer, I don't know, but the buyer does fill out the 4473, check is run, I get the money and a private bill of sale with names, date, serial, and FFL name from the buyer, and pay the FFL $25 (funny that, a lot of them have initially whined that it's just sooo hard they need more, one guy wanted $75 + 10% cost, but they always seem to get reasonable when I offer to shop around).

Worth it for both the peace of mind of legally covering my ass, and making as sure as I can that I'm not putting a deadly weapon into hands that shouldn't have one. Personally I think it should be the only way to transfer, but tinfoilers think even tens of millions of individual hard-paper records literally scattered across the country is a "registry"

more along the lines of entering the info and getting a simple yes or no.

Background checks can work, can help reduce the death toll...but the more records that never make it into the NICS database, the more likely that an unqualified person will slip through the cracks. As, tragically, we have just seen happen. States shouldn't need a carrot-and-stick approach to get these records into the system in a timely manner...but it seems they do.

This is a perfect example of the kind of gun control measures that a lot of gun owners like me gladly support. No one benefits from unsuitable persons having easy access to weapons.

Last edited Tue Aug 4, 2015, 11:34 AM - Edit history (1)

Now if all those gun owners, and there are a LOT of them, would only bring their support to the NRA's attention perhaps the $1.3 Billion already allocated to upgrade the states' reporting could be budgeted.

It's on thing to pass legislation, another to get it funded when the NRA owns so many congress critters.

edit to correct the money allocated to upgrade reporting from $1.4 B to the real $1.3 B.