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Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
This isn't a national thing. Each state has its own rules and regulations regarding firearms. What you had to do, no one has to do in many other states. There are states that don't require licensing at all, and states that don't require any certification at all. There is no consistency from one state to the next. It's one of the top reasons (not the only top reason - just one of them) why Chicago is always such a mess. Yes they have strict gun laws. But those laws don't mean a damned thing when the states right next to the city's borders, Indiana and Wisconsin, don't have strict gun laws. It's a half hour over the border, buy a gun -legally- there, drive back to the neighborhood and pop a cap in your enemy's head. Easy peasy, and cheaper than buying black market goods in town.
There exists no universal background check nationwide. That is what millions of Americans are fighting to get. We don't want to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. We just want some nationwide measure of accountability, to minimize the number of people who "shouldn't" have guns, having them anyway.
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I would think any criminal can buy a gun "on the street" in any state. They don't have to cross a border to do so.
https://www.uslawshield.com/firearm-...73-mean-to-me/
Every gun dealer in the United States has to have a Federal Firearms License (FFL). Every gun sold, new or used, at an FFL, must have an ATF Form 4473 completed and submitted to the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Therefore, everyone who buys a gun from a gun store or gun dealer has gone through a background check. That holds true whether you are at their store or at their booth at a gun show.
Private gun sales is a different issue. Some states, such as California, require private part transfers to go through an FFL and the same Form 4473 is submitted and a background check is performed. Some states do not require a private individual to do anything at all. Florida law states that you must be a resident of Florida with a state issued ID to buy a new or used gun. Therefore, if you have a Florida drivers license I can sell you my used firearm.
Form 4473
It is a federal crime to lie on Form 4473. The odds of being prosecuted for lying on Form 4473 is extremely low. In 2019, Hunter Biden lied on Form 4473 and was not prosecuted. That is not surprising. In 2019, NICS denied 112,000 prohibited people to by a gun, Federal Prosecutors received 478 referrals for prosecution and only prosecuted 298 cases. That is a prosecution rate of 1 in 375 prohibited people.
Perhaps we should enforce the laws we already have on the books to keep guns out of the hands of prohibited people before we push for new laws. Perhaps we should study the impact of the laws that already exist. Perhaps we evaluate the penalties of crimes committed with firearms and make it severe. That has worked in the past. Perhaps if someone murders another with a firearm instead of spending over $1 Million to execute that person, they face a firing squad. That has worked in the past and we save tax payers $1 Million per murderer.