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Gun ownership 101

There is good gun ownership, and then there is irresponsibility. Here’s how to be a knowledgeable firearm steward

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Buck Boring, owner of Buck’s Guns, shows two semi-automatic rifles at his shop recently. The top, an AR-15 type modern sporting rifle, the other, a wood stocked vintage Remington. Both operate on exactly the same principle. Also on the counter, the form that a buyer has to fill out along with the require ID and permit for handguns.

It’s a contentious and often emotional issue.

Guns.

While the debate rages about who should have them, who should not, what kind they should be allowed and what they should not, the basic mechanics of firearms, and the laws governing their purchase, use and carrying, are often not well understood.

A recent example? Actress Alysa Milano, speaking at a gun control rally in Dallas, Texas, said this: “I do not think that it should be as easy to buy an AR-15 as it is to get a caramel macchiato at a Starbucks.”

Chloe Cathcart, 16, a sophomore at Fort Dodge Senior High, said something very similar at a recent gun control walk-out there.

“There’s a problem when a kid that can’t buy cigarettes can buy a gun, like an AK47.”

Both, according to federal and state laws, are wrong.

Buck Boring, owner of Buck’s Guns in Fort Dodge, went through the process a customer has to comply with before the licensed dealer can sell them a gun.

It’s paperwork first.

“The 4473 form has to be filled out first,” he said. “That information is what the NICS background check uses. It’s also the record I have to keep.”

NICS is the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, is in charge of it.

The next step depends on the type of firearm being purchased and whether or not the buyer has a permit to purchase or permit to carry.

Iowa law requires one of those to purchase a handgun. The permits have an NICS control number that Boring enters on the form instead of doing the call-in background check. Long guns can be purchased with the permits also. For those buying a long gun without a permit, it’s the call-in check.

The call-in background check can result in one of three choices for Boring.

“Proceed, denied or open,” he said.

Proceed is obvious. There is nothing in the data base that bars the buyer from purchasing a firearm.

Denied will get you run out of the shop.

“You’re done here buddy,” he said.

Open is more vague.

“I can sell it, but it’s my choice,” he said.

Boring opts not to.

“I won’t do it,” he said. “I’m just going to say no. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Once the process is finished, the customer pays for their gun and it’s now theirs.

Boring has to follow the same procedure no matter where he sells a gun; that includes gun shows where there isn’t any “gunshow loophole” for dealers.

“It’s a private sale,” he said. “An individual can go to a show and sell their collection.”

“For me, there is no loophole,” he said. “If you’re a dealer you do the paperwork no matter where you’re at. It’s the exact same process.”

Permits

To get a permit to purchase or a permit to carry in Iowa, an applicant has to go through their local sheriff’s department.

Webster County Sheriff Jim Stubbs said that, in Webster County, there are currently 3,618 valid permits; 112 of those are purchase permits, the rest are carry.

He doesn’t have to reject very many, he said.

“It’s a very minute number,” he said. “I’ve probably rejected 10 during the course of my time here.”

Before he issues a permit, there’s some paperwork. For a carry permit, an applicant has to provide proof of firearms training, fill out the appropriate form and pay a fee.

For a purchase permit, there’s the form and fee.

Both are five-year permits.

Stubb’s staff will submit the applicant’s name through the NICS data base.

“It’s the same as your criminal history,” he said.

There are a host of criminal convictions that will bar an applicant from being issued a permit. Any felony is an automatic bar, as are most types of domestic violence convictions. Under Iowa law, Stubbs said, a conviction for an aggravated misdemeanor involving weapons is also a bar to a permit.

“It’s treated as a felony under Iowa laws,” he said.

Only actual convictions count.

Mental health

Mental health issues, some of which bar the individual from gun ownership, have to involve the courts. Seeing a counselor for depression doesn’t count.

“You have to be ordered to a facility,” he said.

Restrictions

There are legal restrictions on where a permit-holder may carry a gun. Some of the legally-off-limits places include schools and their property, the court services area of courthouses, police stations, jails, and most federal property such as the Post Office.

Private property owners can post signs barring firearms from their property if they wish.

While private sales are legal in Iowa, Stubbs urges caution.

“The smart thing to do is ask for ID and ask to see their permit,” he said. “You don’t want to open yourself up.”

That permit is actually a legal requirement for a private handgun sale in Iowa.

Boring, as a licensed dealer, can’t sell privately, but he knows many who do.

“Most guys I know will ask for the permit and an ID,” he said.

Semi-automatics

Much of the recent debate has centered on so called assault rifles.

“It’s a modern sporting rifle,” Boring said. “You won’t find the term assault rifle in the BATF regulations.”

BATF is now actually BATFE: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

The assault rifle term is used casually, and incorrectly, to refer to semi-automatic rifles that share cosmetic features with weapons that are capable of fully-automatic fire in use by the military.

“You can’t go to Walmart and buy a military-grade weapon,” he said.

Semi-automatic, regardless of whether it’s a rifle or a handgun, simply means that the energy of the fired cartridge is used to mechanically load the next cartridge. The trigger fires one shot when pulled, then must be released for the next shot.

Fully automatic means that the gun will continue to fire until the trigger is released or it runs out of ammunition. This type of weapon is strictly regulated by federal law.

Many common hunting rifles operate in exactly the same manner as the AR-15.

The AR-15 that is so much in the news is a semi-automatic.

Boring isn’t sure why the AR type rifles have become a flash point in the gun control debate.

“As an example, take the Ruger Mini-14,” he said. “It shoots the same cartridge as an AR, it’s almost the same gun, but nobody’s complaining about it. The AR looks like an M4 though. For some reason they act like it’s the baddest machine on the planet.”

Magazine capacity

Magazine capacity is another issue that’s frequently in the debate. The term large capacity magazine is frequently used for any magazine holding more than 10 rounds, regardless of the gun it’s intended for.

“It depends on the AR,” Boring said. “Some come with 20s, some with 30s, some with 10s. When I was in the military it was 20.”

Most in the shooting community use the term standard capacity magazine or just magazine.

Boring said the term is mostly political and quite arbitrary; the 10-round cutoff seems to have originated in states that elected to pass magazine bans, such as California, he said.

“If it’s over 10 it’s high-capacity,” he said. “It just kind of stuck. There’s nothing on the books that defines a high-capacity magazine.”

Misconceptions

Stubbs and Boring both see a couple of common misconceptions.

For Stubbs, it’s where a permit to carry is needed.

“You do not need a permit to carry to go to the range and shoot,” he said.

The gun does have to be transported there legally; that means unloaded and not accessible in a case or other container.

For Boring, it’s confusion over legal semi-automatic rifles and machine guns.

“They’re not even the same,” he said. “The exterior may look the same, but the interior is completely different.”

A bump stock, a device that uses the gun’s own inertia to increase the rate at which the shooter can pull the trigger, has been another hot button issue.

Boring has little use for them.

“It’s a piece of plastic junk,” he said.

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