VPC Hails Clinton's Call to Regulate Gun Shows

Kristen Rand, author of the 1996 study Gun Shows in America: Tupperware� Parties for Criminals and director of federal policy for the Violence Policy Center, issued the following statement in response to President Clinton's call for stricter regulation of gun shows:

President Clinton's new focus on gun shows, heralded in his Saturday radio address, is an important development. Thanks to legal loopholes created by the gun lobby, gun shows are Tupperware� parties for criminals. The President's leadership can help close those loopholes and meet his goal of "no background check, no sale."

The Violence Policy Center's research has shown the dangers of gun shows where criminals, fugitives, and others can buy guns�no questions asked. Unfortunately, gun show sales are just one of many loopholes in the Brady Law's system of background checks, which applies only to federally licensed firearm dealers. At gun shows, these dealers sell guns side by side with "hobbyists" who are not required to run background checks. Other firearm sales that elude Brady and other gun laws include those at flea markets, through classified advertisements, and through personal sales�all of them perfectly legal sales which are virtually unrestricted.

It's time to crack down on gun show sales and the other "secondary sales" that undermine our gun laws. Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) has already introduced one proposal to license gun shows and apply the Brady Law and other gun laws to them. With the President's leadership, we can make great strides toward regulating guns in the same fashion as every other consumer product in America.

The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.