Get a load of this whopper...Obungles lying out his overused ass
The White House
✔@WhiteHouse
"A violent felon can buy the exact same weapon over the internet with no background check, no questions asked." —
@POTUS #StopGunViolence
President Obama's boldest action on guns yet, explained
Obama's executive actions are a small but significant tweak to existing laws. In the US, there are
several restrictions in federal law to buying a gun. Generally, the idea is that Americans who are underage, have serious criminal backgrounds, or are mentally ill should not be able to purchase a firearm.
Whether someone falls into any of these categories is typically evaluated through a
background check: Under the federal system, licensed dealers are required to run these checks before they can sell someone a gun, typically by having the FBI check a person's criminal record, mental health history, and other factors. If someone fails a background check, he or she can't legally buy a gun.
But the system is riddled with loopholes.
The most well-known way to bypass background checks is the private sales loophole: If someone purchases a gun from a private seller, such as a friend or family member, no gun background check is required. This is often mischaracterized as the "gun show loophole," under the assumption that people can simply go to a gun show and buy a gun without getting a background check. But licensed dealers at gun shows still have to carry out a background check.
The actual loophole is that someone can meet with a private seller at a gun show — or, increasingly, over the internet — and buy a firearm from that person without a background check. In other words, the gun show doesn't create a loophole; the private sale does.