I have a question for anyone who thinks that universal background checks are "common sense" in terms of gun laws.

Have you ever bought a gun?

I've bought two guns in the last year, and I was checked for both purchases.

"Oh...but Gun shows!"

Nope, sorry, even at gun shows, dealers need to have an FFL and conduct a background check.

The only way that a background check isn't legally required is via private transfers -- like, if I were to give a gun to a family member or sell one to a friend. One component of Biden's executive orders is an attempt to make that a felony.

The thing is, even if Biden is successful, that still falls short of what they mean when they say "Universal background checks." What they really want is a gun registry. That's the only way to make universal background checks work. There are only three effective functions of that: 1) make it marginally easier to track a gun that may have been used after you've been murdered, 2) punish a person who transferred a gun without a background check to a person who ends up using it; namely, if I give a gun to my best, local friend for self-defense and she uses it to shoot somebody who tries to rape her, the government gets to throw me in prison for illegally transferring the gun, 3) gun confiscation -- which has happened in every country that has implemented a national gun registry.

What it doesn't do is stop mass shootings. Almost zero mass shooters have criminal records before they commit their crimes. Almost every mass shooter who bought their guns passed a background check, with a recent exception in which the gun was purchased illegally. It also doesn't stop gang violence -- if you know that you're committing crimes that'll carry thirty years to life in prison, you don't care about the illegal transfer laws. Really, it doesn't stop gun violence at all. There's some shoddy evidence that it may reduce suicides; but, there's no logical connection there.

So, yeah...have you ever actually bought a gun? If you have, do you still think that universal background checks are a good idea? If you do, can you even explain what precisely distinguishes universal background checks from what we already have -- ya know, aside from what I just explained?