Senate File 163, sponsored by Senators Jack Hatch, Robert Dvorsky, Joe Bolkcom and Jack Holveck, has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. House File 207, sponsored by Representatives Jane Greimann and Wayne Ford, has been assigned to the House Public Safety Committee.

The bills would require that firearm sales between two or more unlicensed sellers be conducted through a federally licensed firearms dealer and meet all federal and state laws. The dealer could charge a fee of up to $10 to offset the cost of conducting the required background check and keeping records. The bills provide exemptions for transfers of antique firearms or collectables, and for firearm transfers between family members.

Under the Brady law (enacted by Congress in 1993), federally licensed firearms dealers are required to conduct criminal background checks on all buyers and to keep records. However, the Brady law only applies to firearms sold through licensed firearms dealers. But dealer sales only account for about 60 percent of all firearm sales. The remaining 40 percent of firearm sales, an estimated 5.45 million transactions each year, are not subject to background checks. In the firearm business, firearm sales by unlicensed sellers are referred to as “secondary sales.”

John Johnson, Executive Director for Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence said, “It is important for lawmakers to consider the details in the bills, including the exemption for sales between family members and the provision for compensation of dealers. The simple fact is that there are two kinds of gun sales – those by licensed dealers, constituting 60 percent of all gun sales, with a background check, and those by unlicensed sellers, constituting 40 percent of all gun sales, without a background check. We’d like to see a uniform requirement for a Brady background check on all gun sales.”

Kirsten Meredith, IPGV’s Communications Director, added “The way firearms are sold in the U.S. is like an airport security system that allows 40 percent of the passengers to board airplanes without going through a metal detector. Furthermore, the passengers get to decide whether or not to go through the metal detector before boarding.”

The Coalition supports this legislation because secondary markets (i.e., firearm sales by unlicensed sellers) provide criminals, and other persons who are prohibited by law from possessing firearms, easy access to guns. A 1999 government study found that of guns used in crimes, only 11 percent could be traced to the original gun purchaser from a licensed firearms dealer. The other 89 percent of crime guns had changed hands at least once after original purchase. That is, the person who committed the crime obtained the gun from secondary markets.

The secondary sale of firearms by unlicensed sellers allows felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill, and other persons prohibited by law from possessing firearms to buy guns without a background check or record of sale according to the Iowa Coalition to Prevent Firearm Injury. Sources of secondary sales include gun shows, flea markets, estate sales, firearms sales over the Internet, firearms sales through classified ads in newspapers, and other person-to-person sales.

The proposed legislation would not require any new state or federal resources since it makes use the existing network of federally licensed firearms dealers and the Instant Criminal Background Check System maintained by the federal government.