Gun sellers speak on President Obama's gun control executive order

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Craig Toys is the third generation owner of Max's Pawn Shop, open since 1935.

He does carry guns and agrees with President Obama's executive order calling for expanded background checks, but he says the order needs more.

"I agree with what the president said. We need to make sure that criminals don't get firearms," said Toys. "There are existing laws that are not enforced."

The president's order targets what he calls the "gun show loophole," calling for all sellers to become registered gun dealers.

Mandeville-based Classic Arms Productions, which is bringing Bossier City its next gun show this weekend, said the loophole isn't a gun show problem.

"Individuals and collectors, they have the same rights to sell a gun or buy a gun outside of the gun show as well as inside the gun show," said CAP member Ben Hewett.

Hewett argues most gun show sellers are licensed already.

"Typically, 5 percent of the tables in our shows are individuals which are collectors or someone selling an inheritance of guns, etc.," he said.

Toys said his business has their Federal Firearms License and employs a system that's worked for decades.

"That licensed dealer or individual will send the firearm to us. We document the acquisition side and then we document the disposition side, doing the background check at that time for that transaction," he said.

As far as requiring anyone who sells a gun to register, Toys and Hewett worry about enforcement.

"Would you really be requiring an individual that wants to sell a gun to his cousin or his brother or whatever to get a Federal Firearms License?" Hewett asked.

"How do you get enough agents into the field to enforce these existing laws? How do you train them?" Toys asked.

They said that's the key: Stepping up enforcement before the wrong person gets his or her hands on a gun.

"Bad people will find ways to do bad things but there has to be enforcement and there has to be accountability and the enforcement has to fit the crime," Toys said.

Hewett says the gun show kicks off at the Bossier Civic Center on Saturday. Both he and Toys say it's going to be a wait-and-see affair to see if the government can fund the enforcement for the order.

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