Among the various helpful suggestions being stressed by liberals seeking areas where gun rights advocates and gun grabbers might find “common ground” is the question of the Gun Show Loophole in places such as Virginia and Kansas (among others). Just imagine… open forums where criminals, the deranged and the idle rich can wander in off the streets, plop down a fistful of cash and walk out with every weapon known to man with no background check. It’s an awful thing, isn’t it? Or at least it would be… if it were real.

In Virginia, one legislator is on the trail of a way to stop the madness whether it happens or not.

Legislators will be dueling over guns this year at the Capitol, with gun-rights advocates set to oppose efforts to close Virginia’s gun-show loophole. Alexandria state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-30) and Arlington Del. Patrick Hope (D-47) have introduced legislation that would require a background check for every gun purchase. That includes the 40 percent of current gun sales that take place in a private transaction, which do not require any kind of background check to be conducted on the individual purchasing the weapon.

The article actually has some good information in it, even if portions of it are unintentional. The key point we should be addressing when this comes up is the fundamental fallacy of the greatly inflated stories about the “loophole” in question. When you go to one of these shows, there are sellers of all kinds. Some of them are dealers who bring large amounts of stock of various types to sell. And many of them will have some pretty high end, high tech weapons for sale. But here’s the thing… they are registered dealers, most of whom have regular store front operations, and they still have to do a spot background check before the sale.

But there are also other folks there who may only have a few – or even one – gun for sale. Some of them are collectors who are getting rid of their collections. Others may simply no longer have a need for their old hunting rifle and could use the cash. And they largely don’t have access to the system for doing an instant background check. That’s why the so called “loophole” exists. It isn’t a gun show loophole, it’s a private seller loophole.

Now we could certainly have a discussion about stopping people from acting as professional dealers under the guise of private sellers if they are seeking to avoid the normal commerce laws applicable to store owners. But a “solution” which sweeps up every individual who may want to sell their old rifle to their cousin is no kind of answer. Of course, that’s not what anyone wants, right? Oh… wait.

“And so the kinds of things that there’s an emerging set of recommendations, not coming from me but coming from the groups we’ve met with,” said Biden today, before a closed door meeting on gun control. “And I’m going to focus on the ones that relate primarily to gun ownership and the type of weapons can be owned. And one is, there is a surprising — so far — a surprising recurrence of suggestions that we have universal background checks. Not just close the gun show loophole but total, universal background checks, including private sales.”

I suppose that shouldn’t surprise us all that much. But there’s one more aspect to the whole background check and registration thing which doesn’t get quite as much attention. Why would anyone object to gun registration? Neal Boortz had a rather terse answer for Vice President Biden.

Biden was also miffed about the fact that our government doesn’t have a database and a way to track all of the guns in our country…

There is a reason there are laws to prohibit such things, you fool. The fact is that a criminal who is out to kill someone is going to get a gun through whatever means they can, legally or illegally. So why then restrict the people who seek to protect themselves from such evil? Liberals say it is the government’s job to protect you from such evil. But when your house is being broken into and you have a predator aiming a gun at you or your family, the government isn’t there to disarm the thug. That is your life on the line … and don’t let these liberals convince you that you don’t have an “unalienable right” to protect it.

Well, that’s enough depressing, gun grabbing news for one Saturday. So before we close, I’ll just invite you to have a look at some much needed gun control humor. Enjoy.