No claim is too outrageous for the anti-gun lobbyists masquerading under the name "Americans for Gun Safety" (AGS). In its latest ad attack on gun shows, AGS alleges that: "As Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge signed legislation requiring background checks for handgun and ‘assault weapons’ sales at gun shows." The facts say otherwise.

Governor Ridge signed "The Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act of 1995" (also known as Act 17) which simply specified that after the Pennsylvania instant check system became operational, all persons purchasing any firearm from a licensed dealer would be subject to an instant records check wherever that purchase was made. Act 17 continued the exemption of rifle and shotgun transfers from one individual to another from any requirement for a records check. What Governor Ridge did sign is much closer to the NRA-supported Dingell provision than anything in the AGS-supported McCain-Lieberman-Schumer bill. Act 17 did:

1) define gun shows in a manner that specifically recognized and respected their unique and temporary nature

2) recognize the superiority and effectiveness of an instant record check system and eliminate the state’s 60-year-old waiting period on handgun purchases

3) eliminate the need for a firearms dealer to obtain a separate license in each county where he might wish to conduct business at a gun show.

Not content merely to make wild and dishonest claims, AGS shamelessly praises legislation that—unlike the bills it promotes—protected gun shows, protected the rights of those who conduct them and protected the rights of those who attend them.

The requirements for transferring handguns between individuals in Pennsylvania were set in 1934, and Act 17 made no changes in the requirements for transferring handguns at gun shows. Act 17 did specify that after the Pennsylvania instant check system became operational, anyone purchasing any firearm from a licensed dealer would be subject to a records check wherever that purchase was made. But the law also continued to exempt rifle and shotgun transfers between law-abiding individuals who are not licensed dealers from any requirement for a records check.

When AGS’s first ad claimed that Act 17 "requir[ed] background checks for handguns and ‘assault weapon’ sales at gun shows," the NRA pointed out that the law actually continued a longstanding exemption for rifle and shotgun sales by private citizens and noted "the term ‘assault weapon’ does not occur in Pennsylvania state law."

Trying to salvage some semblance of credibility, AGS contended that the ad was "careful" not to make claims about rifles and shotguns and that it was really talking only about "assault weapons" that are "defined by federal law" and that have "barrel lengths that fit the coverage of Act 17, of which there are many."

Anyone with a passing familiarity with federal firearms law will immediately see the nonsensical and mutually exclusive nature of this false claim. "Assault weapons" as defined by federal law most certainly do include rifles and shotguns. However, under Act 17 the background check requirement only applies to "firearms" as defined in Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act—a very limited definition that only includes handguns with barrels less than 15", rifles with barrels less than 16", shotguns with barrels less than 18", and all guns that are less than 26" long overall.

This definition of short-barreled shotguns and rifles mirrors the federal National Firearms Act of 1934 that severely restricts the transfer of such firearms and others such as machine guns. Such firearms are not available for over-the-counter purchase at any gun show or retailer anywhere in America -- for nearly 70 years.

Far from including "many" of the federally banned "assault weapons," this definition would not include a single one of the standard production pre-1994 rifles or shotguns specifically defined as "assault weapons" in federal law. AGS’s ignorance or intentional misrepresentation of this key Pennsylvania definition of "firearm" makes its claim utterly worthless. Nonetheless, throughout its response piece AGS continues to use the term "firearm" as if it means "any gun." It does not. The statute is quite clear.

We are at a loss to even guess why AGS made this patently fraudulent claim in the first place or why it continues to employ this obvious deception in its ads.

In its desperation to abolish gun shows, AGS continues attempts to fabricate a gun show "loophole." The truth, of course, is that existing firearms laws apply at gun shows the same as every other place guns are sold. Since 1938 persons selling firearms have been required to obtain a Federal Firearms License (FFL). Engaging in the business of selling firearms, at a gun show or anywhere else, without an FFL is a federal felony.

AGS also claims "convicted felons have known about this loophole for years." The truth is that multiple federal government studies prove that gun shows play virtually no role in criminal gun acquisition.

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report Firearms Use by Offenders—the largest such study ever conducted—found less than 1% of U.S. "crime guns" were obtained at gun shows. This November 2001 study was based on interviews with 18,000 prison inmates and is entirely consistent with previous federal studies. A June 2000 BJS study, Federal Firearms Offenders, 1992-98, found only 1.7% of federal prison inmates obtained their gun from a gun show. Similarly, a National Institute of Justice study, Homicide in Eight U.S. Cities, released in December 1997, reported less than 2% of "criminal guns" come from gun shows.

AGS—like the most rabid gun haters in Congress—apparently wants to inject "terrorism" into the firearms policy debate at any cost. But its feeble attempts to link several "terrorist" cases and gun shows is built on serial lies. AGS continues to cite the case of an "IRA terrorist" even though the jury that convicted him for illegal gun purchases acquitted him of the specific charge that he was an IRA terrorist. That AGS continues this lie in the face of public record speaks volumes about its dishonest tactics.

Additionally, the record is clear that the guns in question were bought at gun shows by "straw" purchasers (individuals with "clean" records who are willing to violate current federal law and illegally purchase firearms on behalf of criminals prohibited from doing so)—and absolutely nothing in the legislation AGS deceitfully promotes would have prevented such illegal acts.

AGS also continues to deceptively manipulate an old FBI case in which a man was suspected of attending gun shows in the Detroit area to purchase firearms for shipment overseas to the Hezbollah. The FBI placed the man under surveillance, and in due course, he was arrested, prosecuted and convicted in federal court. In other words, the system worked—enforcing existing firearms laws worked.

AGS’s ad deliberately fails to note that the suspect—Ali Boumelhem—was a convicted felon and as such was prohibited from buying guns anywhere—including at gun shows. To suggest he slipped through a "gun show loophole" is simply a lie. The best evidence available strongly suggests that the two shotguns Boumelhem was convicted for possessing were bought by a "straw purchaser." Again, nothing in the legislation that AGS promotes would have prevented such illegal acts. And, again, aggressive enforcement the federal laws already on the books brought the criminal to justice.

AGS’s previous misrepresentations of the facts in this case are telling. In an e-mail to Members of Congress, AGS’s Jim Kessler states "an FBI informant previously has seen Boumelhem in Beirut unloading shipments of weapons and explosives." The Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, which AGS cites as its source, is much more specific, saying the FBI informant "had seen Boumelhem in Beirut unloading shipments of automatic weapons, explosives, grenades and rocket launchers."

Clearly, "automatic weapons, explosives, grenades and rocket launchers" was changed to "weapons and explosives." Why? Because AGS knows full well that since the passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934, none of those items can be bought or sold at any gun show.

AGS’s attempt to link the terrorist actions of September 11—which, of course, in no way involved firearms—to gun shows is not only a shameless assault on the truth; it is a desperate attack on logic. As the editor of the Arab American News in Dearborn pointed out in commenting on the Boumelhem case: "Hezbollah is getting millions of dollars from Iran. They have plenty of weapons. They don’t need a few shotguns from Dearborn."

AGS’s continuous pattern of deception was also seen recently in an AGS Foundation-released report, "Broken Records," claiming to document the need to mandate an indefinite waiting period for gun sales. State authorities have blasted the report as inaccurate.

AGSF "should be given a failing grade for its shoddy research," said Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Paul J. Evanko: "The fact is that the group did not contact State Police for information, which we would have been happy to supply. With accurate information, I think AGSF would have drawn a different conclusion."

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and a local BATF agent say that just because some background checks are not completed within a three-day period does not mean illegal gun sales resulted. "We check all those out," said the BATF official in Kansas City, noting that "in many cases, it turns out the person shouldn’t have been blocked anyway." If alerted that an illegal buyer obtained a gun, the agency goes after him, the official said. Such person can be prosecuted for an additional federal felony for accepting the firearm.

South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon said of the AGSF report: "I think they’re putting out false information because of their desire to push gun control." He said South Carolina is "doing a good job in terms of checking people appropriately."

"It appears that they haven’t done their homework, because they give Ohio absolutely no credit for the effort that's been put forth to date," Joe Case, spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, said. "This group tries to paint the picture that nothing’s being done, especially on the accuracy of the automated data system. That’s just absolutely false."

For the record, AGS is an organization whose sole founder and funder, a former Board member of Handgun Control, Inc., has a highly focused and barely hidden agenda: licensing all American gun owners and registering every firearm they own.

AGS has nothing to do with gun safety. It is a billionaire’s pet project, staffed by the architects of the anti-gun schemes of Bill Clinton and Charles Schumer. The president of AGS is Jonathan Cowan, who served as aide to the self-appointed anti-gun czar of the Clinton administration—HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, whose agenda for fighting crime revolved around threatening nonsensical lawsuits against gun makers and wasting federal taxpayer dollars to buy unwanted, usually junk, guns. Cowan is assisted by Clinton White House political aide Matt Bennett, and by Jim Kessler, the former gun control advisor to Senator Charles Schumer.

These credentials may explain the insistence of AGS in perpetrating clear falsehoods. The previous Administration championed the tactic of "tell a lie often enough and soon it becomes the truth." AGS is clearly hoping that the same tactic will prevail in its assault on gun shows.