Gun show loophole

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The gun show loophole is the absence of laws mandating background checks for certain private sales of firearms in the United States. The term gun show loophole, in some cases, refers to "a situation in which many sellers dealing in firearms offer them for sale at gun shows without becoming licensed or subjecting purchasers to background checks",^[1][2] while in others it refers more generally to the broader private sale exemption in U.S. federal gun law,^[3] which allows non-commercial gun sales by private parties without a background check (regardless of whether these sales are at gun shows or not). Regardless of the context of a sale, private sales to buyers known or suspected of being prohibited from possessing firearms and "straw purchases" by others on behalf of prohibited purchasers are illegal.^[4][5] The background check system and the private sale exemption were established by the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, commonly known as the Brady Bill. Under the Brady Bill anyone not "engaged in the business" of selling firearms is not required to obtain a background check on buyers seeking to purchase firearms from a seller's private collection. Along with federal laws for firearms purchases, there are also local and state laws regulating background check requirements for the purchase of firearms.^[6][7][8][9]

Advocates for gun rights find the "gun show loophole" terminology dubious, since the applicable law says nothing that is specifically about gun shows. They argue that current laws provide rules for commercial gun sellers more broadly, and intentionally do not regulate non-commercial, intrastate transfers of legal firearms between private citizens, regardless of whether the transactions occur at gun shows or somewhere else. In 1999 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) reported that the definition of who is "engaged in the business" of firearms sales is overly narrow and that the Brady law did not help private sellers identify prohibited persons seeking to purchase firearms, while also allowing habitual arms traders to claim that they fall within the private sales exemption.^[10] Since the mid-1990s, gun control advocates have campaigned for requiring universal background checks.^[11][12] Implementing universal background checks would affect all private sales, not just those at gun shows.

Federal law requires the holders of a federal firearms license (FFL), such as gun stores, pawn shops, outdoors stores and other licensees, to perform a background check of the buyer and keep a record of the sale for any commercial sale, regardless of whether the sale takes place at the seller's regular place of business or at a gun show. Firearm sales between private individuals who reside in the same state – that is, sales in the "secondary market" and with an unlicensed seller – are exempt from these federal requirements. According to a statement by the United States Department of Justice in 2024, unlicensed dealers are a significant source of firearms that are illegally trafficked into communities.^[13]

Twenty-two U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and all U.S. territories have laws that require background checks for some or all private sales, including sales at gun shows. In most of these cases, such non-commercial sales also must be facilitated through a federally licensed dealer, who performs the background check and records the sale. In other states, gun buyers must first obtain a license or permit from the state, which performs a background check before issuing the license (thus typically not requiring a duplicative background check from a gun dealer).