SUMMARY:

Protects private commerce in firearms between private citizens from government intrusion. Defines "private commerce."

FINDINGS:

The right of individual citizens to acquire and possess firearms is protected by both the state and federal constitutions. While background checks are required during purchases from licensed dealers under the auspices of business regulation, firearm transactions between private citizens are protected private business, regardless of the venue in which the transaction takes place.

Complaints have been leveled by gun control advocates that unlicensed dealers are engaged in firearms commerce at gun shows. Before 1994, such persons could obtain an FFL and do business as a licensed dealer from their homes or gun shows. Since then however, the ATF does not issue FFL’s to persons who do not have a fixed place of business. This is therefore a problem of the federal government’s own making. As commerce in firearms is constitutionally protected, and the federal government has left no other option for people who want to engage in buying and selling used guns from their homes or gun shows, such persons should not be considered by the state to be burdened with license or regulatory requirements that the federal government has intentionally made impractical.

Existing background checks through the National Instant Check System (NICS) that are required for dealer sales have been shown to have little to no effect on crime rates, or the ability of violent felons to acquire firearms. Even in the event of an outright ban on firearms, criminals would simply obtain them from black market sources, through the same channels currently used to import drugs, as is currently taking place in Britain.

The NICS system has been subject to rampant abuse. People are routinely delayed or denied altogether over such things as clerical errors in court documents. The FBI is known to issue denials on the basis of creative and subjective interpretations of prohibited categories, such as "drug user," "mental defective," etc. The FBI is also currently amassing records of every kind that can be used to deny the right to own weapons.

Efforts to expand the NICS background check requirement to private purchases are intended to eventually close off all avenues for private citizens to purchase a firearm without first obtaining permission from the FBI, which is openly hostile toward civilian gun ownership, as governments throughout history have always been. The NICS system is being developed and expanded for the purpose of denying self-defense rights to as many citizens as possible.

S.B. 5197, the "gun show bill" which was first introduced in Washington State in 2007, was actually crafted to close down gun shows in the state entirely. The bill held gun show promoters criminally liable for third party actions beyond their control. Furthermore, while the bill held gun show promoters and gun sellers criminally liable for violations, it did not hold persons who made illegal purchases liable in any way.