'Yes' on Amendment 22

'Yes' on Amendment 22
Require background checks for all gun-show sales

Oct. 19, 2000

Imagine if some liquor stores were allowed to sell alcohol without checking the ages of their customers. Or, what if hospitals could only dispense drugs by prescription but pharmacies were allowed to sell to all comers.

Would that make sense? Of course not, and neither does the current gun law that requires background checks for all gun sales by federally licensed dealers, but permits unlicensed sellers to set up shop at gun shows and essentially sell firearms to anyone with the cash.

Amendment 22 would close that loophole and require that every buyer at a gun show undergo a background check. It would require the gun show promoter to arrange for one or more licensed dealers to handle the background checks, and it specifies that they be paid up to $10 for each time they perform that service.

It specifically exempts antiques, and defines "gun show" to mean that at least 25 guns must be offered for sale, or at least three dealers be doing business. Swapping a gun for your buddy’s fly rod would not trigger the law’s requirements. Handing granddad’s shotgun down to your son would not do be affected. And, neither would licensed gun dealers.

The only people who would be affected are unlicensed gun dealers and people who buy guns from them — some of whom are precisely the people this amendment is meant to stop from getting guns.

This is not some scheme to take guns from law-abiding citizens. It is nothing more than a sensible plan to close a loophole in the law that has allowed criminals to more easily obtain guns. The best example being the Columbine killers, whose guns were bought at a gun show by a woman who later said she would not have done so had she had to undergo a background check.

Amendment 22 has the backing of four former governors — two Democrats and two Republicans — as well as Gov. Bill Owens, Attorney General Ken Salazar, the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police and a whole raft of citizens’ organizations from the Colorado Children’s Campaign to the PTA. It is common sense law and it deserves to be passed.

Vote "yes" on Amendment 22.