Administrative war on guns
While Nevadans without such permits have to pay $25 to have an FBI criminal background check run each time they purchase a firearm, serious gun owners and shooters were told that as a fringe benefit of acquiring the concealed carry permit we’d be allowed to buy firearms without undergoing (and paying for) a new $25 “Brady” check each time.
Guess what?
In an Oct. 13 letter, Maj. Robert Wideman of the division of the Nevada Department of Public Safety (state police) advises Nevada gun dealers that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has determined that will no longer be the case beginning Oct. 23.
$25 seems steep. It’s $10 here in Tennessee, though CCW permits do not exempt you from background checks. Someone is working on that though.
The impact in Nevada will be a drop in gun sales and a rise in the number of background checks. The reason for this change is that not all entities that issue permits conduct background checks. I find it odd that a sheriff any where would issue a permit and not conduct a background check. Something isn’t right.
Update: So, the directive for this is coming from the ATF. Seems the feds are overriding state law. Not sure if that’s a constitutional issue or not. Someone enlighten me.
October 24th, 2005 at 11:16 am
As much as I disagree with the ATF, I think their reasoning isn’t far off in this case.
I don’t understand why a state would allow CHL licensing without a background check. Especially if that would save having to do a check with every gun purchase. (This is how it’s setup in Texas, BTW. I don’t remember the last time I had to submit to a background check.)
It’s not a constitutional issue. Federal law preempts state law if there’s a conflict.
October 24th, 2005 at 11:19 am
I tend to doubt that they are issuing permits without a background check.
States’ rights, anyone?
October 24th, 2005 at 11:52 am
I’ve never heard of having to pay a fee for the NICS (Brady) check when buying a gun. I’ve probably purchased about 20 guns over the past 10 years from 7 different dealers here in Vermont and also from two dealers in NH. Some of those were simple transfers, not purchases. Not one dealer asked for a fee.
Indeed, my four-year non-resident CCW permit for NH only cost $20 and you KNOW they are at least running a check on me.
October 24th, 2005 at 12:04 pm
Yeah, no fee for check here in Washington State. With a CCW they run an instant check (since our CCW doesn’t include anything more than a state and local check), otherwise it takes about a week. In Oregon and Texas, there’s no wait at all, CCW or otherwise. They just run an instant check and you’re done (or done for, depending on the results).
October 24th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
In Utah it’s $7.50, which is waived if you have a CCW permit. For permittees, the dealer just calls the Utah Bureau of Criminal ID and verifies that your permit is valid. Utah runs daily warrant/arrest checks on all permittees and if there’s a hit the permit is automatically suspended.
As I haven’t bought a gun for a while I don’t know if they’ve changed this or not. I would suspect that the Feds are cracking down on states that run their own Brady systems instead of using the FBI but don’t run daily background checks on their permittees. Hence their insistence on a full background check.
Or it could just be a case of the ATF overstepping it’s authority. But that would never happen, right?
October 24th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Lest it’s not clear to anyone, those words were written by Vin Suprynowicz, not by me–I was quoting him on WarOnGuns.
October 24th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
States’ rights, anyone?
It’s only a States’ rights issue in the sense that the feds are regulating the sale of firearms through a very broad interpretation of the commerce clause.
On the fed law v. state law issue, if the fed legislates in an area, and the states do as well, but the two are in conflict, the fed will win due to the supremacy clause in Art. VI of the Constitution.
October 24th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
David, was not trying to attribute it to you but linked to you since that’s where I saw it.
October 24th, 2005 at 4:05 pm
No background check (or at least fee)if your a CHL holder here in Virginia. They do run a background check on you before issuing it, I believe – which my understanding of is that it stands in for the Brady Check (and your CHP would be rescinded if you were convicted of something since its tied to your drivers license).
Don’t recall what the charge is normall, its rather nominal – $5 or so.
October 24th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
Instant check fees, permits, licenses, geez… Come to the “light” folks, move to Vermont or NH and forget all that nonsense! Help us here in Vermont get a Republican Senator or CongressCritter. Own whatever you want, carry whatever you want… Oh yeah, the weather sucks but your unlimited gun rights will keep you warm at night. And we can all hang-out at the town owned and maintained ranges! (Try to find that in most other states! $10 bucks a year and .50 cals welcome!) Sorry, just sometimes wish I didn’t live in the middle of nowhere where other like-minded bloggers don’t exist…
October 24th, 2005 at 10:16 pm
This will make you sick, then. Background check/fee = $28.50 and tax in my “little” California town. This is for a new gun or a person to person transfer and some gun stores charge more on top of that. It gets even more ridiculous if you buy a gun out of state or online, when you can expect them to charge no less than $75 for the transfer on top of the almost $30 they normally charge. Plus, you have to take a handgun safety test every 2 years (?) which costs $35 before you can buy a new gun.
October 25th, 2005 at 12:46 am
I would move back to Vermont in a heartbeat.