New Gun Regulations In The US Would Be Really, Really Stupid

[The Grand Nudger]

We've already got waiting periods and accredited safety course requirements, as well as private sale restrictions, they're just not uniform, or uniformly enforced.

I was unaware of that.  I've been under the impression that you could walk into a WalMart, put down your money and walk out with a shotgun.  No?

Boru

The safety course requirements are attached to use permits in most cases, rather than purchase.  Private sale restrictions run the gamut of being explicit to being implied.  There's no state where it's legal to knowingly transfer a firearm to a prohibited buyer...but only half the states require licensed third party checks.  Waiting periods vary by state and firearm (and are heavily tilted towards handguns).

No, Walmart will run a check.  Though IDK if checks on shotgun purchases really matter. They're not well represented on trace data. Believe it or not, this is one area where Walmart is probably better than independent dealers.  It's easier to talk a dealer into a big purchase than some minimum wage desk clerk who won't benefit from the sale. Our gun problem, and no data has ever found otherwise, isn't a sales problem at all. The areas where the most guns are bought and sold and owned have the lowest rates of gun crime. This isn't due to guns reducing crime, they don't, it's just the simple fact of the vast majority of gun owners not being criminals of any kind. This is why people from those areas freak out about gun reg talk. Enhanced regs of the sort commonly thrown around will impact them, but won't effect the change we seek through gun reform.