Politicians in yet another state—this time Delaware—are introducing legislation designed to close the so-called “Charleston Loophole.”
Delaware’s Democrat House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst, pointing to 18 other states that have “addressed” the issue, intends to file the legislation targeting the provision of federal law that allows a firearm sale to go forward if the FBI hasn’t completed the background check in three days.
Regardless of how many states “address” this nonissue, fact is no such “loophole” even exists. As we’ve explained before, the federal law was intentionally written to stipulate that if an investigation into a sale by the FBI has not been definitively concluded within three days, the dealer may proceed with the transfer. This provision was not some kind of “error” leading to a “loophole”: Congress inserted the safeguard to ensure that an anti-gun Department of Justice could not indefinitely deny Americans the ability to exercise their fundamental right to arms by simply never concluding a background check.
