Texas Legislative Alert 2001-03-07

The Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee could soon consider HB 367 & HB 404, legislation imposing Clinton-style restrictions on legal firearms sales at gun shows.

HB 367 & HB 404 make it a third degree felony or, respectively, a Class A misdemeanor, for anyone who is not a federal firearms licensee to sell their privately-owned firearm at a gun show to anyone other than a concealed handgun license holder.

Under HB 367 & HB 404, lawful private sellers or gun show promoters would be responsible for finding or providing a licensed firearms dealer to conduct a records check under the FBI-run National Instant Check System on would-be buyers in order to facilitate the sale of your firearm. This means that the dealer would have to take your private property into his inventory before requesting a NICS check. In the event that the sale is not completed -- because of a NICS outage (a fairly common occurrence), a "delay" or "deny" response to a records check request from FBI, or a change of heart on the part of the purchaser -- the dealer would then have to run a NICS check on YOU before returning you your lawfully-owned personal property!

What also this means is that under HB 367 & HB 404, every firearm purchaser at a gun show will ultimately be registered with the FBI and be subject to up to a 3-business day wait -- far longer than any gun show normally lasts! These proposals mirror the onerous Lautenberg amendment to last Congress` juvenile justice bill that ultimately failed in conference committee.

Members of the Million Mom March have tried to fool committee members into believing that there is a need to close this so-called "loophole" (where none exists), that illegal firearms sales at gun shows is a problem (without providing any such evidence to back up their claims) and that this will not impact legal firearms sales at gun shows (their aim is to shut such events down.) Please call, email and fax members of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee as soon as possible and urge them to oppose these misguided, mistargeted pieces of legislation.

Please encourage your friends, family and fellow gun owners to contact committee members as well!