An effort to require criminal background checks at gun shows is likely going nowhere. Milwaukee Democrat, state Senator Spencer Coggs, said buyers at gun shows are not required to undergo a criminal background check, as are buyers at firearms retailers. “What we’d like to do is make that the person who is purchasing the firearm is not a felon. That person should have a background check. That’s all it does,” Coggs said. “This legislation is just an effort to shut down gun shows,” said Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder, an Abbottsford Republican. “It’s an effort by the anti-gun lobby to unfairly label these guns shows as dangerous and extreme.”
Suder said the bill is a non starter in the Republican controlled legislature. “Representative Suder says because they have the majority this bill is going nowhere. He’s basically saying that this is just the wild, wild west, that anybody can buy a gun at any time,” countered Coggs. “Senator Coggs is trying to shut down gun shows, and that’s not going to happen. This bill is dead on arrival,” said Suder. He added that Republican lawmakers will propose legislation to toughen penalties against straw buyers – those who buy weapons for convicted felons who are not entitled to purchase them.
