Salon.com > Gun shows

Gun nuts’ strangest subculture: Book clubs

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:10:00 +0000

Who goes to the gun show looking for literature?

Recently, I was on assignment to write about America’s biggest weapons showcase: The Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot. The last thing I expected to find was interesting reading material.

I was wrong.

But first let’s confirm something you might be wondering: Yes, just about any adult with a functional trigger finger can buy a serious gun, even nerds like me. Had I been so interested, my mostly clean criminal record (See: Loitering conviction, 1998) wouldn’t have stopped me from stuffing an AK-47 into the back of my Honda Civic.

That’s not my type of journalistic research. Since I struggle to tell a Howitzer from a Ronco Rotisserie Cooker it wasn’t a surprise that I was drawn to the more ephemeral wares at the firearms extravaganza, in particular, the book sale.

No, not the thick tomes of military history or firearms manuals. I’m talking chapbooks.

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18-year-olds can buy handguns

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:53:00 +0000

If you’re 18, the law says you can’t buy a handgun. But you can buy a handgun without breaking the law. This paradox exists thanks to a little-noticed manifestation of the so-called gun show loophole, which keeps government regulations out of private gun sales.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 made it illegal for a gun dealer to sell handgun to anyone under the age of 21. “Sales of handguns and ammunition for handguns are limited to persons 21 years of age and older,” the ATF’s official Federal Firearms Regulations Reference Guide states. But the agency's regulations only apply to federally licensed firearms dealers, not to non-professional private sellers.

“A high school senior in most states can go to a gun show, go online, or any other place that they might find a private seller and lawfully purchase a gun that they couldn’t otherwise at a gun dealer,” explained David Chipman, a former ATF special agent who now works with Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

“That is correct," confirmed George Semonick of the ATF. "Under federal law, it's not unlawful for an 18-year-old to posses a handgun," Semonick explained to Salon, though some states have their own age requirements for handgun possession.

Gun control activists focus on universal background checks

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 21:14:00 +0000

As part of the push for tougher gun laws, gun control activists have homed in on expanding background checks, and they say that closing the "gun show loophole" is just a small part of the broader problem.

Under current policy, potential gun buyers can purchase a gun without a background check by going to a gun show, where the regulations are looser. This has caused some gun control advocates to focus on shutting down the individual gun shows.

The New York Times reports:

In the Northeast, they have had some success. One of the region’s largest dealers, Big Al’s Gun Shows, has canceled shows in Poughkeepsie and Suffern, N.Y., as well as in Danbury, Conn.

The latest gun show to come under fire is scheduled to begin today in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The arms fair, held several times each year in the city’s public exhibition space, has traditionally been a big draw, with thousands of people shopping among a wide assortment of weapons ranging from handguns to military-style assault rifles.