Getting the record straight on gun sales. In announcing new gun control plans yesterday, President Joe Biden commented on alleged gaps in gun background checks. “Most people don’t know, you walk into a store and buy a gun, you have a background check. But you go to a gun show, you can buy whatever you want and no background checks, “according to Biden.

Several fact-checkers have disputed this assertion.

The Washington Post The fact-checking team notes that federally licensed firearms dealers are indeed required to conduct background checks on buyers and “file substantive documents.” You can view the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) guidelines for firearms vendors here.

Some people try to get around these rules by pretending they don’t sell guns. However, “arms dealers who claim to be gun enthusiasts but who actively sell guns at gun shows are being prosecuted,” To postby Glenn Kessler and Salvador Rizzo. “It is also against federal law to sell a firearm to anyone whom you have reasonable grounds to believe is a prohibited person, such as a criminal.”

Polifact also challenged Biden’s statement. Fact-checkers Louis Jacobson and Amy Sherman point out that:

When it comes to background checks on gun purchases, what matters is who sells the guns, not where the guns are sold – and when a federally licensed vendor is a vendor when ‘a gun show, he has to do a background check like he would. if they were back in a gun store.

What matters is whether the seller is in the Business to sell guns — in which case they have to be licensed by the federal government and have to do background checks, or else they’re already breaking the law — or a private seller who happens to be selling a gun. More Polifact:

Specifically, the law states that a license is required if “a person who devotes time, attention and labor to the trade in firearms in the course of a regular commercial or commercial activity with the objective principal of earning a living and making a profit through the repeated purchase and resale of firearms. “

The law specifically excludes a license required if a person “makes occasional sales, exchanges or purchases of firearms for the improvement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of their firearms. personal collection of firearms ”.

The administration defended Biden’s comments by saying it was possible for someone to buy a gun at a gun show without going through a background check. This is true but misleading because it is possible for someone to buy a gun all over from a private seller and not be the subject of a background check; gun shows are not the problem.

“Biden’s wording may give the impression that no background checks are required at gun shows, ”notes the To post. “Our colleagues at PolitiFact characterized Biden’s statement as ‘mostly false.’ We would lean more toward ‘half-true’ (i.e. two Pinocchios) given that Biden’s statement could be misinterpreted.”

On Thursday, Biden announced six new actions related to gun control. Raison‘s Jacob Sullum details Biden’s proposals here.

Not surprisingly, the measures, including further restrictions on the sale of gun kits and the appointment of anti-gun activist David Chipman as ATF head, have garnered much praise. from the progressives and a lot of consternation from the conservatives and libertarians. .

One particularly disturbing development is Biden’s attention to private gun dealers. There is little that Biden alone can do to change the rules surrounding gun donation and peer-to-peer sales. But it supports legislation that would suppress such exchanges.

“Many Democrats and gun control advocates now want almost all sales and transfers to be subject to mandatory review,” including sales and transfers “among friends and extended family,” notes the Associated Press. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democratic gun negotiator, said he was on the phone with fellow Republicans every day “to make the case, to cuddle, to ask my friends to bear in mind open “” about the proposal and also told the AP that Biden was “ready and willing to get more involved.”

FREE SPIRITS

Republican police efforts like this are getting more extreme. “A handful of Republican lawmakers in North Carolina want to force school officials to monitor children for signs of sexism and report them to their parents,” he added. Raisonby Scott Shackford reports:

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Ralph Hise (R-Spruce Pine), Warren Daniels (R-Morganton) and Norman Sanderson (R-Minnesott Beach), orders school officials and child welfare workers to notify parents in writing or guardians whenever a minor under their supervision “has exhibited symptoms of gender dysphoria, gender non-conformity, or otherwise demonstrates a desire to be treated in a manner inconsistent with the sex of the minor.”

In other words, the goal here is not to “protect” troubled adolescents who have doubts about their gender identity from making life-changing decisions too soon. The bill seeks to monitor gender compliance. By its very nature, it will target gays and lesbians as well as trans children and opens the door to monitoring boys and girls who are neither gay nor trans but simply do not exhibit typical masculine or feminine traits.

FREE MARKETS

“States keep repeating the same mistake with the legalization of marijuana”, Complains Slate. This mistake: making it too complicated to open and operate a legal business, which leads the legal market to be dominated by large multi-state cannabis conglomerates.

Increasingly, a group of large companies known as Multi-State Operators, or MSOs, are dominating the industry. While still small compared to liquor companies, for example, the larger MSOs have dozens of stores and hundreds of millions in annual revenues. Major MSOs such as Curaleaf, Cresco Labs and Columbia Care have raised funds by going public in Canada.

Family entrepreneurs, including those who could benefit from equity programs, are being left behind. In the traditional economy, entrepreneurs of color often struggle to access capital, but in the cannabis world, the the whole industry is excluded from the financial system. Some banks are willing to work quietly with fund companies and charge them hefty fees, but small businesses can’t afford that option.

QUICK CUT

• Latest news on the George Floyd murder trial:

The prosecution in the Derek Chauvin murder trial claims that the former Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd by pinning him face down on the sidewalk for nine and a half minutes. In this position, prosecutors say, Floyd couldn’t breathe enough to stay alive. Today, expert witnesses reinforced that account, saying the evidence points to Floyd – who complained 27 times of having trouble breathing – died of lack of oxygen.

• Biden plans to withdraw his troops from Afghanistan by May 1.

• Kat Murti and I debunk myths about women, work and the pandemic.

• Tennessee joins 18 other states that allow unlicensed transportation:

I signed the constitutional deferral today because it shouldn’t be difficult for law-abiding Tennesséens to exercise their # 2A rights. Thank you to the members of the General Assembly and @NRA to help do that. pic.twitter.com/xv2ZenOEZq

– Governor Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) April 8, 2021