Weekend Update and a UBC Taste Test

[sqlbullet]

I live in Utah.  The big regular gun-show in my area is the Crossroads of the West gun show, and it was this past weekend.

We all know how certain political affiliations like to make a big deal about the "gunshow" loophole, which of course is non-sense.  Same rules of gun sales apply at gunshows as apply anywhere else, at least here in Utah.  The new Democrat mayor of Salt Lake County decided that something had to be done about this.  Since the county owns the exposition center where the show is commonly held, they amended the contract to prohibit any gun transactions that did not pass a background check.  Never mind that private individuals have no way to run a background check, if you wanted to leave the show with a gun it either had to have been tagged as yours on the way in, or you had to have a paper showing you passed a background check.

As I was perusing the various wares at the show an FEG FP9 showed up, and at a very good price.  Having recently lost my Hi Power clone to a child who chose it for their 21st b-day present, I have been hoping to find a good deal on an FEG, FM, or Kareen Mk1.  This fit the bill.  The FP9 is a faithful P-35 clone accepting standard Browning Hi-Power parts.  The only deviation is the presence of a full length ventilated rib on the top of the slide.  This example was in fabulous shape with the original blueing still in tact and the grip panels in good shape.  A sale price was negotiated with a couple of magazines and I was on my way...Or so I thought.

After agreeing on the price and writing up a (now required) bill of sale, the seller and I were off to stop one on the bureaucracy train, the 4473 table.  One of the FFL's at the show had graciously agreed to run the private party sales on 4473's for his shop at no cost.  (I gotta think he regrets that now).  To accommodate the number of purchases, several tables were set up throughout the convention hall were buyers could obtain a 4473 and fill it out prior to heading to the FFL's booth for the final check.  When we arrived at the table we were #4 in line, and they were out of 4473's.  I had to wait there for 15 minutes for more forms to show up.  I cranked through the form pretty fast and was informed I now had to wait for an escort to take us over to the FFL booth.  All told I spent about 30 minutes at stop 1.

Next we were ushered over to the FFL's booth - AKA stop 2.  Now this poor guy was running a full booth.  Guns, ammo, accessories - The whole shebang in addition to his Samaritan duties running background checks.  He had four or five people helping him at his booth, but only one computer to handle his sales of invoiced items and background checks.  He was in full emergency mode with a stack of invoiced sales and background checks waiting for his attention, and a group of surly customers and buyers waiting on him to complete his work.  I spent about 30 minutes at this stop waiting for my paperwork to reach the top of his pile.  Once it did it was less than a minute for the thumbs up to come back, and a slip of red paper to be issued to me.  This paper was my "get out of the gunshow" proof of background.

At this point the seller released the gun to me, I released my money to him and I headed for the door.  I wasn't sure what the purpose of the red paper was yet, but figured I had to be about done.  This was when I hit stop 3.  At the exit I had to show my ID, the gun and they red paper to the gun show attendants.  They retained the red paper.  This stop passed reasonably quickly, taking only about five minutes. 

All told, this process added over an hour to what should have been a 5 minute transaction.  And it distributed my PII (personally identifying information) to three additional parties, two of whom had no need for the information at all (the FFL who was dragged into my private business and the convention center who kept the red paper with my name, phone and DL number).

We have a state preemption clause, but the county asserts that they are not passing legislation, they are regulating commerce on county land (they own the expo center).  The state is updating it's preemption law today to make it clear to the county that they can't do this, and there is a lawsuit.

The new FEG has been stripped down, cleaned and put back together.  One of the grip screws was extremely tight and broke off trying when I attempted to un-thread it.  I have new screws on the way.  The trigger shoe also has a piece missing but it is in a non-critical area and I am not going to replace it at this time.  I removed the magazine disconnect plunger and spring, and honed all the surfaces involved to clean up the trigger.  I will post pics after the grips are re-installed.

Happy with the gun.  Universal background checks are, as expected, a waste of time.

[Kenk]

Absolutely, they are trying to ramrod this through in MN now

[Graybeard]

What a pain in the.....well, you know. Michigan has the same type of law preempting counties and cities from passing gun laws. Thankfully, what you went through hasn't been tried here. Equally lucky, a Michigan Concealed Pistol License eliminates the requirement for a background check for any gun sale.

Perhaps you should send the county a bill for your hourly rate. In order to conduct legal commerce they commandeered your time. Congrats on the new gun.

[The_Shadow]

sqlbullet, Glad that you were able to make it through the processes despite the time cost!  Hopefully the County lawsuit about them regulating commerce on county land (they own the expo center) doesn't forbid future gun shows!

[Reddog81]

Good luck on getting the preemption law passed.  Iowa is trying to pass one to prevent localities from banning accessories such as threaded barrels and "high capacity" magazines.   Iowa law has preemption as it relates to firearms but cities can try and argue that magazines aren't firearms and therefore fall outside the scope of the law. 

UBC won't accomplish anything but be a major hassle for law abiding citizens.  Of course the people pushing these laws want to make buying a gun as burdensome as possible so they don't really care.   The crazy thing is there are people who support the 2A and think UBCs are a good idea. 

[sqlbullet]

Pre-emption bill died in the senate due to our once a year abbreviated sessions.  But it resoundingly passed the house 55 to 15, so hopefully that will help get the message.  Every chance it will make it next year, if the court case doesn't render it moot.