Say what you want about groups like Moms Demand Action, but they don’t actually stop pushing their agenda just because they figure they’re winning. They keep he heat on as much as possible, even in states where they really can’t seriously believe they’re going to win. I have to respect it, even if I disagree with absolutely every word that comes out of their mouths.

Especially since so many of them make this push without even understanding the facts.

Well, it seems the group made a pitstop in Tampa.

A bill that would expand background checks for gun purchases will soon go before the U.S. Senate, and it’s the top legislative priority for Moms Demand Action, a gun-control advocacy group that made the case for the bill in Tampa on Wednesday.

The House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 8) last month that would mandate universal background checks, mostly along party lines. Eight Republicans supported it and one Democrat voted in opposition. It would expand federal oversight of gun sales, requiring unlicensed and private sellers to conduct background checks.

Currently, gun sales that take place online, at gun shows, or between family members and friends are not required to request a background check. The bill does not apply to certain firearm transfers or exchanges, such as a gift between friends.

Two out of three of those are, of course, absolutely false.

No, trust me. Go online to someone like Spike’s Tactical and try and buy a gun from them. They’re going to ship it to an FFL where you’ll have to undergo a background check before you can pick up the weapon. You’re not getting anything without someone consulting NICS.

The same is true of gun shows, where the vast majority of people selling guns are licensed dealers and are conducting background checks before you’re allowed to leave with a firearm.

This language is intentionally misleading. See, what’s not covered are individuals selling their personal guns, facilitated through either the internet or through meeting at a gun show. These account for remarkably few firearm transactions every year, especially since sites like Facebook won’t allow people to advertise firearms anymore.

Moving on…

“The problem is the law has not been updated in over 25 years,” says Tampa Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor, referring to when the first background check law was passed as part of the 1994 ‘Brady bill.’

“Twenty-five years ago we didn’t have the internet,” she said. “So you didn’t have online firearms sales. You didn’t have a lot of these gun shows, so it’s very important to update the background check laws.”

“To be able to just purchase a weapon out in a parking lot like this, that should not happen,” added Tampa City Councilman Joe Citro, speaking in a parking lot where the news conference took place on Wednesday.

Why not?

No, seriously, why not?

I promise you, those deals were going down in parking lots prior to the Brady Bill’s passage. They’ve always happened. Before the internet, people advertised guns for sale in the classified section of their local newspaper. The internet just changed where the classifieds are, it didn’t change anything else about the deals.

Plus, let’s not forget that criminals may occasionally pretend to be law-abiding citizens in order to buy a gun from a private individual, but they’re more likely to either steal a gun or buy one from someone else who stole it. They can get them for less and are less likely to attract attention by cutting a deal in a public parking lot.

But at the end of the day, they won’t acknowledge any of those facts because if people understood that, they wouldn’t be willing to back legislation that only interferes with the ordinary citizen and not the criminals.