Gun control groups criticize handgun ads in newspapers (BARF ALERT!)

Leaders of gun control groups from Illinois and 15 other states today called on the nation's newspapers to stop carrying classified advertisements for guns, saying such ads let criminals obtain firearms without undergoing federally mandated background checks.

"Criminals will always be able to obtain handguns, but newspapers shouldn't be making it easy for them," said Thom Mannard, executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

Under 1993 federal legislation, federally licensed gun dealers are required to conduct criminal background checks on all people who buy firearms from them. But the law doesn't apply to people who sell guns from private collections at gun shows, estate sales and flea markets and in newspaper classified sections.

"Classified ads for guns are perfectly legal, but just because something is legal doesn't mean it's good policy," Mannard said at a news conference today in downtown Chicago that included handgun opponents from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan. "We are asking the newspapers that serve the public to make a careful decision to ban these ads on their own."

A number of major metropolitan newspapers {ndash} but not the Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times {ndash} carry gun ads, Mannard said. Some do not accept handgun ads while allowing rifles and shotguns to be advertised.

Todd Vandermyde, second vice president of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said that to buy a gun in Illinois from an individual, the law already requires the seller to ask a purchaser to show a valid firearm owner's identification card.

"If (sellers) don't ask for a card, they're committing a felony," Vandermyde said. "We already have a law for this. There's no need to stop people who want to sell their guns from advertising in the newspaper."

But Mannard and other gun control advocates say the FOID law is far from foolproof. They cited Benjamin Smith, an avowed white supremacist who shot and killed two men, including former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, during a 1999 shooting spree. Smith allegedly obtained the guns he used in the shootings from a man who advertised them in a Downstate newspaper.

"Smith had his FOID card revoked, but not confiscated," Mannard said. "Law enforcement simply does not have the resources to make sure that every felon has his FOID card taken away. Banning these ads in newspapers would be one step in the right direction to keeping guns out of the hands of people like Benjamin Smith."

Many newspapers, including the Tribune and Sun-Times, have long had policies against classified ads for guns. Tribune spokesman Jeff Bierig said the paper's policy dates to 1982.

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