Democrat buys semiautomatic rifle at Va. gun show in under 10 minutes - Polidicks

Congressional candidate Dan Helmer releases a video in which he .. A Democrat running for the nomination to challenge Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) strolled into a gun show in Chantilly last month and purchased a semiautomatic rifle in about 10 minutes without a background check, according to an undercover video produced by his campaign. Dan Helmer, an Army veteran, said he bought a firearm similar to the one he carried in Iraq and Afghanistan to show how easy it is to legally obtain an “incredibly dangerous piece of weaponry that’s meant for war” from a private seller. He bought the gun less than two miles from a public school, he said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP1EUb30FMo

Vile. Why in the world did it take so long? I've been in and out in five at shows.

Pretty pathetic that it's that easy tbh.

Whether or not you believe this is a serious issue, I'd just like to point out that Barbara Comstock represents my district and she is basically awful in every conceivable way, and when I emailed her about the FCC net neutrality decision some months back, I got some shitty form email about how classifying internet as a utility stifles innovation, basically telling me what my opinion should be. Fuck you, Barbara Comstock. The only thing you're a representative of is corporate money.

Helmer wants to close the “gun show loophole” that allows anyone to buy a weapon from an unlicensed seller without scrutiny. You gonna close the backyard loophole too?

Fyi, this isn't for purchases from regular FFLs, this is a private purchase (individuals, not stores) which is dependant on the state you live in whther you need a background check before such a sale. This is not unique to gun shows in as much as I'm aware.

I get lovely emails from mine saying how disgusting the steele dossier was for being used as the sole basis for the fbi investigation. btw my congressman sits on the house intel committee, so he's knowingly lying to me.

In all honesty this should be a crime but this isn't a "gun show loophole", it's people bending the existing state law over the barrel and fucking it hard. Just make private transfer require an FFL as a middleman like California does. Like, I hate California gun laws but that's really the only one that makes a lick of fucking sense.

He's either committed a felony by buying a gun from an FFL without a background check, or he bought a gun through a private sale. Loophole implies something dishonest but technically legal action, except private sales being FFL free were always the intention of the law in the US, so it's no loophole. The guy should just be honest and admit he wants private sales banned instead of trying to bundle it up with nonsense about gun shows. Also lol at the "less than 2 miles from a school" nonsense, as if that matters.

Dan Helmer, an Army veteran, said he bought a firearm similar to the one he carried in Iraq and Afghanistan to show how easy it is to legally obtain an “incredibly dangerous piece of weaponry that’s meant for war” from a private seller. He bought the gun less than two miles from a public school, he said. As someone else said no, you bought one that isn't even functionally similar or even close. Glad to see another dem who cannot get it through their head that the majority of people are tired of the weak emotional appeals. If you want to change gun-show laws, fine, but lets try and get away from this whole mentality. Tons of shit happens near public schools, no one cares or mentions them.

I went to a car show and bought a car in 10 minutes. All I had to do was give him the money, he gave me the title and I drove off! Appalling! When I bought my truck at the car dealership, it took 30 minutes. Ban private sale of cars

She used to be my rep and I got the same exact email! Someone on /r/nova got it too: https://i.imgur.com/2sKEK8v.png Personally if I still lived in that district I'd vote for Friedman, come primary. I donated like $15 to her campaign

Well at least with a title transfer of a car, it's you reporting to the state that property is exchanged. Is there really any equivalent for firearms other than the states that require an FFL for private sales?

I'd personally be more in favor of something like the Swiss system. Universal background checks, but the way you do it is by getting a generic background check at the post office. They print out a certificate that shows you don't have anything on your record, and gives you a window of a few months to buy.

When you buy a gun from a private citizen who doesn't have an FFL, there's no background check, no transfer fee, nothing. That's the nature of private sales. They do not have the legal authorization to run a background check on you, nor the obligation. A gun show is 80% private sellers meeting up to trade; it's a swap meet. This isn't a loophole. The gun show is a face to face equivalent of other private sale networks like: https://www.gunsamerica.com/ https://www.gunbroker.com/ http://www.armslist.com/ https://texasguntrader.com/ Again, there is no loophole. You are a private citizen selling lawfully owned property to another private citizen. The gun show is just the context of the meeting.

As a neutral Dutch person who doesn't really care about the whole pro or anti gun thing you guys have going on, it's pretty weird seeing you guys being more worked up about wether it's the same rifle or not, instead of worrying about some guy just buying a rifle without any background check. Yeah the video is pushing an agenda but still

No and the only reason you have to do the title thing is because the state owns the roads you're driving the car on. If you never drive the car on public roads you don't have to make the state aware of the transfer.

I think that's the worrying part: It's just like a car show/swap meet but for guns. The ease and quickness of it, I believe, is what they're somewhat concerned/weirded-out about.

Ah, so we should end private sales between non-FFL

The fact that you do it is somewhat irrelevant. The point is that anyone can do it, which is retarded. Guns should be regulated, not just traded like pieces of candy at a fair.

"You didn't run a background CHECK?!?!?!" "Well no, it is completely impossible for us to do that with the way NICS works currently" "Oh my GOD THE CHILDREN WHY DIDN'T YOU DO IT ANYWAY"

The point of the video isn't to demonize the guys who sold him the gun, it's to point out how someone can circumvent background checks by purchasing from a private seller, which should be stopped

Great but that doesn’t matter. It’s not illegal and there is no loophole.

I don't think characterizing their argument that way accurately reflects what their argument was. Their argument was not 'they should run checks that are presently impossible to do'.

Easy; make it so selling (or giving) someone a gun without going through the background check process (through a gun shop probably) make the registered owner of the gun an accessory to any crime committed by any person in possession of the gun. What reasonable person is going to risk life in prison (via felony murder laws, if I understand the general gist of the law correctly) to save a small fee (for the background check) and the inconvenience of driving to a local gun shop?

Then the solution in this situation is to not trade guns, not just yolo yourself into trading them at some show.

Right, okay. It SHOULD be illegal and that's why he's running for congress

They didn't say it was illegal. They didn't say 'this is a loophole'.

What I'm arguing is that the only thing this shocking exposé exposes is shocking ignorance on the part of everyone who's appalled by it. You might as well record a video of yourself buying lettuce. It's legal, it's been legal. There is nothing worth recording here. If you think it should be illegal, great, go for it. I don't even really disagree. Personally I can get behind background checks for every transfer. But a video like this is just alarmist bullshit pushing a twisted narrative.

I think you're being willfully ignorant of the point being made in order to obfuscate the issue. We all know that this is legal. Nobody is saying this is illegal. Candidates for congress don't go around trying to catch people on camera doing illegal things. He wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to buy a gun without a background check LEGALLY. This is why he's running for congress: to end this practice and require purchases to be FFL only