From the Republican perspective, it's important for people to have guns so that they can kill liberals. Oh wait, no, I mean so that they can defend their homes. From liberals. Because black people are all liberals. If you know what I mean.

I'd like them to re-run the sting, this time with half of the buyers being black. Lets test the hypothesis that gun rights are mostly about white's rights to protect themselves from the negro.

As you yourself pointed out, this wasn't an ACORN-sponsored gun show, so it's no big deal and wouldn't be of interest to anybody.

[...] if a private seller has reason to believe a buyer wouldn't pass a background check, it's a crime to go through with the sale. -- Steve Benen

Yeah, and lose himself a sale and some profit? What a joker you are, Benen.

And, anyway... What the Brave Young Repub undercover agents discovered about ACORN is ever so much worse than the piddling stuff about guns that Bloomberg's minions have found out.

It isn't a "gun show loophole." That's a complete misnomer. It's a "private citizens can sell their property to other private citizens without a license" loophole. It doesn't have to take place at a gun show, and in point of fact, most private-party firearms transfers DO NOT take place at gun shows. And whether at a gun show or in my father-in-law's backyard, I do not have to run a background check before I sell my old .38 to my neighbor.

You can argue that I should. But let's be honest about the argument you're making. By calling it a "gun show loophole," you're making it sound as though the norm is for private parties to conduct such checks, and only at gun shows are they allowed to opt out of doing so. That isn't the case. It has nothing to do with gun shows, and everything to do with not requiring private citizens to fulfill the same requirements as Federally licensed firearms dealers.

Why can't Bloomberg run the tapes on his TV channel? (for the humor impaired, THIS IS A JOKE.) Which reminds me of the joke about how the British disguised their battleships during WW2. They wrote jokes on them and the Germans couldn't recognize them.)

I do not have to run a background check before I sell my old .38 to my neighbor. -- elmo, @15:19

Consider me tickled. Now, tell me this: what about you, a private citizen, selling, say, 50 of your very new .38s and a few AKs as well? You know, "a guy has to make a living" type of thing...

I really wish Bloomberg would stop trying to be New York City's Berlusconi and put his billions to use by funding organizations that could be a serious, effective counterweight for the NRA.

Would it be so hard to set up a kit industry where background checks were available at a booth (or competing booths!) at the show?

Or an escrow service to do the waiting periods?

C'mon, instant industry. I thought Republicans were all for privatizing industries!

An ACORN-sponsered gun-show?

A seriously great idea.

They could register voters and then give them unregistered weapons, just like the Republican Party and its military arm, the NRA, espouse.

Except that it would be a pro-gummint strategy.

Also, have hundreds of ACORN staffers pretending to be...... ACORN staffers... show up at gunshows around the country and put cash on the barrel-head for the heaviest weaponry available and let's see what happens.

Maybe they could tell the gun-purveyors they'll take out any white trash pimp/hooker combinations who show up from now on.

As I understand Federal law. "A person who devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms, but such term shall not include a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms." The exception is the gunshow loophole. A friend of mine is a dealer who attends and makes sales at gunshows. I can assure you he does background checks at those shows just like he does at his store.

The guy exlibra has described is a dealer and is violating the law if he fails to do background checks.

My understanding is that the "Pimp 'N Ho" visited 18 ACORN offices and got three unbelievebly stupid workers to give them the footage they needed. Positive results: 16.67%

Bloomberg's investigation netted 35 out of 47. Positive results: 74.47%.

Apples and mangoes, looks like to me.

Perhaps he should try again with Arab American buyers and try gun shows in the South.

It dealt with a couple pretending to be a prostitute and a pimp getting tax advice. The Bloomberg video is about criminals buying firearms. Which is more important?

From a TV news perspective, I suppose it depends on which one has the scantily dressed women.

And whether at a gun show or in my father-in-law's backyard, I do not have to run a background check before I sell my old .38 to my neighbor.

If, as in the scenario presented by the Bloomberg reporters, your neighbor said, "Hey, can I buy your old .38? I really need a gun but I can't pass the background check," would you at least ask the guy why he can't pass the background check, or would you just cheerfully sell the gun to him because, hey, if he uses it to stick up the convenience store, it's not your problem?

Do those guns shoot acorns? Okay, then.

Criminals are going to get their guns. Idiots are going to get their guns.

It's really not anything to make light of since gun violence all over the planet is not exactly trivial.

The amount of ammunition purchased since Obama became president is beyond belief.

The right loves guns. They make billions selling weapons all over this planet. Why not mock ACORN?

What? Me guilty? Gotta have my AK-47, my Colt 45, my UZI! It's not for humans...blah...blah...blah...

As a Mr. Alfred Matthew Yankovic once stated....

Got a brand new semi-automatic weapon with a laser sight, shoot to kill now shoot to kill! Oh, I'm prayin' somebody tries to break in here tonight, shoot to kill now shoot to kill! I always keep a Magnum in my trunk, you better ask yourself, do you feel lucky, punk?