Radio host and gun rights activist Dana Loesch on Tuesday slammed Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) claims that there are various “background check loopholes” that Americans are skirting. Durbin has repeatedly pushed false information about how background checks occur, particularly as it relates to online sales.
“There’s no such thing as an ‘internet loophole.’ Let me correct any, any, any misinformation that is being promoted by an actual sitting lawmaker that should know this law because he’s been there longer than I think I’ve been alive, in this position,” she said. “It’s not like Amazon. You don’t go on the internet and say, ‘Hmm. I want a gun, I’m going to purchase the gun on the internet’ and just like that one guy who was delivering heroine with a drone, there’s no drone, there’s no gun fairy that’s going to come and drop your firearm on your front porch for you ala Amazon. That’s not how it works.”
The radio host pointed out that how a firearm purchase is facilitated doesn’t change the actual process for completing the purchase.
“The federal law 18 U.S. Code § 922 is still applicable in that you just be a law-abiding resident and buying from another law-abiding resident, where this is your state of residence, in order to bypass any kind of [Federal Firearms Licensee],” Loesch explained. “And you can’t go and do an internet delivery. It doesn’t matter if you order it on the internet. It doesn’t matter if you order it on the phone. It doesn’t matter if you order it through a catalog. If you order something through the mail and, in particular, if it comes from another state, it absol-damn-utely has to go through an FFL, unless you want to break the law and pay a six-figure fine – five to six-figure fine – and spend some time in jail, yeah, that’s how it has to go.”
The Senate is currently taking up H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, the two universal background check bills that passed in the House last week. Both bills, if passed and signed into law, would do nothing to prevent mass shootings but would, instead, criminalize private party transfers. It also sets the stage for a registry, which could also lead to firearm confiscation.
