[Spats McGee]

Others have hit the highlights, but I'll reiterate a few of them:

• The "gunshow loophole" does not exist. The claim by the antis is: There is some magic loophole in gun laws that allows any person to buy any firearm that he can find at a gunshow without a background check. This is patently false.
• If I buy a firearm from an FFL from his business stock, I have to go through NICS. Period. (I'm afraid that I'm a little fuzzy on how things work if an FFL is selling a firearm from his personal collection, so I'll leave that to others.) If I buy it at his brick-and-mortar store, I have to have a NICS check. If I buy it at the gunshow, I have to have a NICS check. If I order it online, or it otherwise crosses state lines, it has to go through an FFL for . . . you guess it, a NICS check.
• If I buy a firearm from a priviate individual, I don't have to go through NICS. Period. It doesn't matter if I buy it from him in his living room, in the parking lot of the grocery store, or at the gun show. It's a private sale. (My state does not require background checks on private sales, but some states do.)

Originally Posted by Glenn E. Meyer

. . . .2. You need to argue why the private sales at shows are OK with no NICS check. Remember that some states want all sales, even private, to go through background checks.

Originally Posted by Kimio

Glenn, can you please elaborate the legality and why it's okay for no NIC's check for the second point, or reference me to some material/documents I can cite to validate some of this?

I typically like having credible sources to try and back up my claims.

I'll jump in on this one. Glenn's second point is that private sales may be done without background checks. Why is that legal? The short answer is because there's no law that says otherwise.

The (or at least "my") longer answer goes something like this:

• My firearms are my property. Aside from what's written in law, such as not selling them to known felons or across state lines (without an FFL being involved), I am under no obligation to ask the gov't's permission to dispose of my own property.
• I am not engaged in the business of buying or selling firearms, so I am not subject to the same laws and regulations to which FFLs are subjected.
• As Tom points out, exempting private sales from the NICS check was a compromise reached years ago. The fact that the antis don't like the result doesn't mean that they didn't agree to it earlier.