Kansas: Crime-gun exporter
By MATT STEARNS The Kansas City Star
WASHINGTON Kansas is a leading exporter of guns used in crimes, and a prime culprit is a loophole in the law, a gun-control group charged Monday.
More than 1,100 guns used in crimes in other states and recovered by authorities were originally bought in Kansas, according to 2001 federal statistics analyzed by Americans for Gun Safety.
That made Kansas the No. 2 exporter per capita in the country of guns used in crimes, behind only Mississippi.
A leading destination of those guns: Missouri. In 2001, 849 guns originating in Kansas were recovered in Missouri crimes, the organization's report said.
Only three guns originating in Missouri were recovered in connection with Kansas crimes that year, according to the report, which used statistics from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives.
Gun-control advocates point to the so-called gun show loophole as a main reason. Kansas is one of 33 states that allow people to buy guns at gun shows from sellers who are not licensed as gun dealers.
That means buyers are exempt from federally mandated background checks, which apply only to guns bought from dealers.
Gun shows are the last large-scale commercial enterprise where you can get a gun without a background check, and criminals have figured it out, said Jim Kessler, policy and research director for Americans for Gun Safety, which supports legislation that would close the loophole nationally.
Seventeen states have closed the loophole. Missouri requires all buyers of handguns at gun shows to undergo background checks. Buyers of long guns from nondealers are exempt.
Bipartisan legislation that would close the gun show loophole nationally is pending in the Senate. The measure could be taken up as soon as this week as an amendment to legislation that would grant gun manufacturers immunity from civil lawsuits stemming from gun crimes.
Gun-rights advocates say dealers sell the vast majority of guns sold at gun shows, and therefore most buyers are subject to background checks. There were more than 2,100 gun shows in the United States in 2003.
I go to virtually every gun show in the Kansas City area, and very few guns are private transactions, said Kevin Jamison, president of the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance.
Only a minuscule number of guns sold at gun shows surface in crimes, Jamison said.
Indeed, the report said that out of hundreds of thousands of annual gun-show sales, 36,828 guns recovered in 2001 were used in crimes in a state other than where they were bought.
Kyle Smith, a spokesman for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, said he would welcome a mechanism that kept felons from buying guns. Smith, however, said he would be hesitant to draw any conclusions from the data.
I've seen nothing to show gun shows are the issue, he said. It's more dealers who move large numbers of firearms at discount prices to out-of-state buyers. We've heard reports from ATF that guns sold by those dealers show up in crimes across the country.
Americans for Gun Safety acknowledges a lack of direct physical evidence linking those guns specifically to gun shows.
The group points out, however, that states with the open loophole are overwhelmingly a source for guns used in crimes in other states, according to federal statistics.
In Missouri in 2001, 57 percent of crime guns recovered came from other states. In Kansas, 26 percent of crime guns recovered in 2001 came from other states.
Of the 36,828 recovered crime guns that crossed state lines in 2001, 74 percent originated in a loophole-open state, the report said.
The KBI's Smith noted that was not surprising, because two-thirds of the states are open-loophole states.
The 15 states that are the biggest sources, per capita, for guns used in crimes in other states all have the loophole open, according to the report.
By contrast, the report said that some of the most populous states did not export large numbers of guns used in crimes in other states. California, New York and New Jersey were all, per capita, among the lowest export states. All had closed the loophole.
In a 2000 report, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said that gun shows were the second-leading source of firearms recovered in illegal gun-trafficking operations.
That report also said prohibited persons, such as convicted felons and juveniles, do personally buy firearms at gun shows, and gun shows are sources of firearms that are trafficked to such prohibited persons.
It's important to close the loophole, Kessler said. The statistical evidence is so overwhelming that you'd have to be blind not to see this is a problem.
The loophole opened up in 1993, when the Brady gun-control law went into effect. The law required federally licensed gun dealers to perform background checks on buyers and enforced a waiting period on gun purchases. With an instant-check system now in use, there is no waiting period.
Private transactions were exempted from the Brady law. At gun shows, many private citizens sell guns from what are supposed to be private collections.
Some of those private citizens are mighty active, Kessler said.
I've been to about a dozen gun shows, he said. I've seen the signs that say, No ID, no paperwork required.' I saw the same people, allegedly not dealers, selling over and over again. Sometimes the gun is still in the box.
If that is the case, those people can be charged under current federal law, said Kansas Sen. Phil Journey, a Haysville Republican and a leading gun-rights proponent.
If they're in it for the business, and not just selling their collections, I don't see any problem enforcing current law, Journey said. That's the problem. We're not enforcing current law.
Americans for Gun Safety, founded in 2000, bills itself as a moderate and moderating force in the debate over gun rights. It has endorsed the federal legislation and worked closely on gun-safety issues with Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and one of the bill's chief sponsors.
Senator McCain is very strongly in support of the Second Amendment, said Marshall Whitman, McCain's spokesman. He also believes in responsible gun-safety measures. This is a middle-ground approach that avoids the extremes of either side.
Chris Cox, the National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist in Washington, said that his group supported making all gun transfers at gun shows subject to background checks but that the McCain legislation would be too burdensome to gun shows.
For example, while the instant-check system generally would be used, the McCain legislation would provide up to three days to perform a background check. Many gun shows are two-day affairs, so many sales could be lost.
This legislation isn't about background checks at gun shows, Cox said. It's about shutting them down.
The gun manufacturer immunity bill already passed the House without the loophole amendment, so even if the amendment passes, it would have to survive conference with the House.
President Bush supports background checks at gun shows, but he has not taken a position on the McCain legislation, said Jim Morrill, a White House spokesman.
To reach Matt Stearns,
Washington correspondent, call 1-(202) 383-6009 or send e-mail to mstearns@krwashington.com.
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First glance
Kansas is one of 33 states that exempt buyers at gun shows from federally required background checks.
More than 800 guns sold in Kansas were used in crimes committed in Missouri in 2001. Only three guns sold in Missouri, which requires more review of buyer backgrounds, were recovered in Kansas crimes.
