Locals react to proposed private gun sale changes
By: Josh Marcisz
Updated: January 17, 2013
A day after President Obama unveiled plans to reduce the nation's gun violence reaction continued to pour in. The President's plan will heavily target private gun sales. The plan calls for closing background check loopholes that allow 40 percent of sales to be made by private sellers who are exempt from administering criminal background checks.
Bossier and Webster Parish Director of Truancy, Richey Jackson, says he isn't happy with the new plan. "I think it's idiotic, I'm a plain spoken person," he explains "if you want a gun in Shreveport or wherever you like, you can buy a gun, you don't have to go to a gun store."
At Cash In A Flash Pawn Store in Shreveport owner Allen Matthews says universal background checks would help boost gun sales. "If they can stop up that loophole you know it would funnel people that want to buy guns to a legitimate business owner." Matthews adds, "It's a positive for me as a father you know that these people will now have background checks and felons won't get through the loophole."
A national survey of inmates found that 12 percent of those who used a gun in a crime acquired it in a manner that did not require a criminal background check.
