No, Trump Didn’t ‘Reinstate’ Supposed Gun Show Loophole

With the litany of wins this week, despite the best efforts of organizations like CNN, it’s unsurprising that some people are a bit miffed. Yes, that includes the mainstream media. I mean, CNN has been fixated on gun control after the latest assassination attempt, and flailing hysterically, but they’re far from the only ones.

The Guardian, which is always good for a laugh, though they don’t mean to be a comedic publication, has tried to join in. With the list of ATF reforms, everyone seems to be picking their own places to focus, and for The Guardian, it’s the so-called gun show loophole.

The US justice department has rolled back several significant restrictions on guns, including reinstating the so-called “gun show loophole”, which allowed people at such events to buy firearms without a background check.

The changes, announced by the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, amount to a shift in firearm policy advocated by supporters of the second amendment, who are prominent in Donald Trump’s supporter base.

Blanche claimed the changes bring gun regulations in line with supreme court rulings, while cutting down on red tape on firearms sellers and owners. He called the slate of revisions the “most comprehensive regulatory reform package in the history” of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

In 2024, the Biden administration closed the “gun show loophole”, which freed firearms dealers from running background checks on buyers at gun shows and other places outside brick-and-mortar stores. The Biden administration began requiring anyone “engaged in the business” of selling firearms for profit to obtain a federal firearms license (FFL) and conduct background checks whether they were selling guns at gun shows, online, or in person.

Gun rights groups and Republican-led states had challenged the rule in court, arguing it violated the constitutional amendment on the right to bears arms and that Joe Biden, as president, did not have the authority to implement it.

“For too long, regulations were written without any real understanding of how firearms businesses operate, how lawful gun owners handle their firearms, or what truly improves public safety,” Blanche said.

They call it the “gun show loophole” because some people sell guns at gun shows. If you’ve got a collection you want to liquidate, renting a booth at a local show could be a good investment. Before Biden, the fact that you weren’t trying to make a living off of it meant you didn’t need an FFL to sell them, thus no background check.

The name sucks, though, because it had nothing to do with gun shows. The same person could hold a sale in their home, invite all their friends, and be just as legal. It was a face-to-face transfer, which is legal in most states.

What Biden did was change the definition of being “engaged in the business” of selling guns from trying to make a living to simply making a profit. The issue was that no one really knew how that was defined. If I bought a gun at a bargain price, then sell it five years later after demand increases, but I’m selling at market price, did I make a profit? Are we adjusting for inflation here, or just comparing raw numbers? There was a lot of confusion and, frankly, the ATF wasn’t making it easy for anyone.

That was the point.

The goal was to either get people to get FFLs before selling their guns or go through an FFL as an intermediary, all of which creates a paper trail for the sales, and since the ATF was also trying to digitize their stockpile of records, potentially setting the stage for forcing the digitization of records held by licensed dealers, that’s an issue.

But more of the issue was the fact that it was never about gun shows, nor is there any gun show loophole. It’s just a scary-sounding name for something that doesn’t even happen at a lot of gun shows. The last dozen or so I went to had no such tables present, which might or might not be anyone else’s experience, but it does go to show that it’s not as common as anti-gunners like Biden wanted people to believe.

What the Trump administration did was roll back a terrible rule that made things as clear as mud for law-abiding gun owners who just wanted to sell some of their guns for whatever reason.

The Guardian should spare us the hysterics.

But they won’t because then the media wouldn’t know what to do with itself.

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

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