Eleven years after Columbine, loophole remains in most states
By Erika Stutzman
Posted: 04/21/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT

On the anniversary of the Columbine shooting, Tom Mauser, father of victim Daniel Mauser, asked Sen. Mark Udall and other elected leaders to close the gun show loophole. We support him in his efforts.

Sen. Michael Bennet has signed his name onto a bill that would require background checks of people buying guns at gun shows. Retail stores do it, but gun dealers at gun shows are considered private sellers so they are exempt.

Two of the guns used at Columbine were procured via gun shows, drawing attention to the disparity between gun shows and retail outfits.

Last month, mentally ill Pentagon shooter John Bedell -- who was prohibited from legally buying a gun -- shot and wounded two officers with a gun he bought at a gun show. There was no background check. According to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), 30 percent of illegally trafficked guns in the United States are connected to gun shows. And authorities say guns from gun shows help fuel the bloody drug cartel war raging just across our border.

How many gun shows are there? Are loophole critics talking about an unusual way to purchase firearms?

There are an estimated 5,000 shows a year, and most attract between 2,000 and 15,000 attendees and sellers.

Recently in Colorado alone, there was one April 17 and 18 in Fort Collins; there will be one (with 700 tables) in Denver this weekend. May 1 and 2 brings shows to Craig and Colorado Springs. One returns to Ft. Collins May 15 and 16, and upcoming shows will be held in Loveland, Longmont, Leadville and Pueblo. (We didn`t find any big Colorado shows May 8 and 9 -- perhaps it`s not a popular Mother`s Day activity.)

But the Colorado shows are regulated the way gun sellers at Dick`s Sporting Goods are, which is a good thing: Gun sellers have to do background checks on all buyers, thanks to a measure voters here approved in 2000. But a gun purchased by a mentally ill person, or a dangerous convicted felon, could wind up here or anywhere, really, because Colorado is only one of seven states with such a law. (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon, Rhode Island and New York are on this list.) Four states require it for handgun purchases at gun shows, and five states --including Nebraska -- require a permit to purchase handguns.

Thirty-three states don`t require background checks at all. That is simply unacceptable.

Critics of our common-sense background check law and of closing the loophole nationwide say that the Columbine tragedy still would have happened even without the loophole. While the Pentagon shooter would have failed a background check, the people who bought the guns they then sold to the Columbine killers would have passed.

But that is beside this very grave point: When it comes to this specific problem in our country, it is beside the point that the mass killing "still" could have happened. Columbine exposed a dangerous hole in how we arm people in this country. Guns are flowing into Mexico, being sold to teenagers, drug dealers, mentally ill shooters and convicted felons. Eleven years later, it`s high time we fix it.

-- Erika Stutzman, for
the Camera editorial board