With President Barack Obama taking steps to tighten gun control, we wondered how they will impact customers and sellers at gun shows in our area nearly every weekend.
Todd Karam owns the Cleveland Armory and has sold guns at gun shows. He told us private sellers at gun shows will now have the same rules as gun shops.
"As a dealer, we have to do background checks no matter what time of the day it is ...or what location,” said Karam. “Whereas, a private seller, when they go to these gun shows, they're taking advantage of location of market."
Karam went on to say he's in favor of a level playing field and for additional, thorough background checks for gun purchases. "Background checks are real simple in that we're looking for some kind of criminal activity," said Karam.
National security expert Tim Dimoff is based out of the Akron area. He doesn't think your personal safety is at risk.
He told us many people feel gun show loopholes need to be tightened up adding that a small percentage of people will be upset by the changes and will not appreciate the additional hassles. "They might be looking at it as this is too much of Big Brother watching...sticking their hands in areas that they shouldn't," said Dimoff.
Some gun show promoters we talked to did not want to go on camera but did say they think Obama is going about this in the wrong way. They feel rights of private sellers are being taken away and sales will take a bullet, injured by the new rules.
Karam doesn't think that's the case. "There's no reason to panic about these new laws,” said Karam. “The intent is to improve everyone's safety."
But keep this in mind: we found a study done by The New York Times that shows that in 15 recent mass shootings in the U.S., including San Bernardino, the vast majority of the guns used were purchased legally with background checks. There were mistakes made in some of those checks.
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