Decline in Gun Dealers

ABC has provided another useless article to stir the gun-control pot. No actual data or evidence for any of the statements. Pretty much the usual from a major player in the MSM.

The United States has more gas stations than gun dealers. "News flash?" you might think. But a decade ago, businesses licensed to sell firearms outnumbered gas stations 245,000 to 210,000. Since then, the number of licensed firearms dealers has declined almost 80 percent, according to a recent study of federal data.

The reason: changes in regulations in the 1990s that, among other things, required federally licensed gun dealers to comply with zoning laws and report certain information to local police.

Gun-control advocates contend that this dramatic reduction is a victory for "sensible" gun-control policy that has made it harder for criminals to get guns. They believe the reduced number of dealers makes it easier for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (known commonly as ATF) to police the "bad apple" dealers who divert guns onto the illegal market. ATF studies have shown that a disproportionately large number of those bad apple dealers were small businesses. And while gun-control advocates acknowledge there's no empirical evidence, they believe the reduction was one element that added to the dramatic decline in crime during the past decade.

Gun-Control activists faith in their cause. No proof, just faith. I suppose I'll just remain skeptical and now quote the NRA's reasoning, which is far far more reasonable.

The National Rifle Association has a very different response: "So what?" says Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA in Fairfax, Va. He contends the changes only drove out individuals who may have gotten a license so they could buy guns at wholesale prices for their personal use.

The alterations in the law requiring following local zoning restrictions and laws made the personal-use "dealer" to be forced out of their license due to most cities and many states having extremely draconian laws on how, where, and who can run a Firearms business.

The thing I find most disturbing is the attempt to attach the reduction in crime in the past decade with the reduction of gun dealers. No one has any real evidence one way or another. Though I'd think the fact that gun ownership has also increased in that same time period would make such a claim fairly suspect. There were far to many social and economic factors in that same time period to have anyone be able to stake a sole claim on the successful reduction in crime. As for reduction in dealers, I find that one of the weakest arguments yet put forth.

They also get in the jab about an NRA supported change related to dealers that ABC appears to dislike.

Gun-control advocates are concerned that some of the progress made in reining in the number of gun dealers will be lost because Congress has been quietly attempting to roll back some of the reforms implemented in the 1990s. For instance, in an amendment attached to the ATF appropriations bill at the behest of the NRA late last year, Congress forbid the ATF from suspending a firearms license because of lack of legitimate "business activity."

"What we really don't want to see is a return to the early '90s, when there was just horror story after horror story of people who were using their license to buy huge numbers of guns and then traffic them illegally into urban areas with strict gun-control laws," says Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit gun-violence prevention organization that conducted the study of the decline in gun dealers.

The NRA says it supported the amendment limiting the ATF's enforcement abilities because some individuals don't sell guns in a regular retail manner, and it believes they shouldn't be penalized for that. The organization also argues that the gun distribution system is not out of control. In fact, it believes the current ATF regulations are already too onerous.

Interesting that the Gun-Control advocate always get first voice of opinion in the article. I'd like to see the actual evidence that the VPC has for their statement. I think the NRA is more intelligent on this. Just because your business isn't doing very well, doesn't mean you should have your license pulled and thus have the government complete the destruction of your business.