Excerpt
An overwhelming majority of gun show operators in New York State have agreed to new procedures to ensure that criminal and mental health background checks are conducted on buyers.
The agreement was reached after undercover agents from the state attorney general’s office were able to buy weapons, including three AR-15 rifles, without any screening at half a dozen gun shows around the state.
“Our goal is to have 100 percent of the gun show operators on board, and then we have a good example for other states to follow,” said Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, who negotiated the agreement with the operators. “Once we demonstrate how easy this is and how it keeps people safe, it weakens the arguments on the federal level that guaranteeing background checks are overly burdensome or face meaningful opposition.”
The operators, with shows from White Plains to Cheektowaga, have also agreed to a broader system to track firearms at their shows and to guard against illegal sales in parking lots.
New York’s program comes as Congress debates whether to require universal background checks for gun sales, including private sales at gun shows. State law has required such checks since 2000, but Mr. Schneiderman said there was ample evidence they were not always done.
The 23 operators who have agreed to the protocols are responsible for more than 80 percent of the gun shows in the state.
The investigators, posing as buyers in 2011, were able to purchase firearms even after they told the sellers that they had orders of protection against them, in which case they would fail background checks. Among the weapons bought were AR-15 rifles, like the one that was used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., in December.
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