Close gun-sale loophole

Background checks for gun sales are a simple and common-sense way to reduce gun violence. And yet some protest that those intent on doing harm will still find a way to do so – background checks or not. By this logic, we should do away with speed limits – after all, “it doesn’t stop people who are determined to speed.”

True, Initiative 594 doesn’t have the power to magically stop all gun violence. No law can do that. But it’s an important step that closes an obvious loophole through which guns get into the hands of criminals, domestic abusers and other dangerous people. Forty percent of gun sales avoid background checks because they’re sold at gun shows, in parking lots or over the Internet – with no questions asked.

There is abundant evidence that background checks reduce crime and save lives. In states where background checks are required, gun trafficking and gun suicide rates are nearly cut in half. The rate at which women are killed with a gun by an intimate partner is 38 percent lower (while the rate at which they are killed by other means is the same).

Vote for Initiative 594 to close the loophole for gun sales.

Cynthia Fine

Spokane