The "gun show loophole" is supposedly being closed, though that loophole never actually existed. 

But a lot of people are terrified of gun shows, mostly because they're convinced criminals are everywhere and no one inside the show has any interest in actually stopping illegal acts because of greed or something.

That's completely untrue. The fact is that most people in the gun community want to stop bad people from doing bad things with firearms, if for no other reason than to cut the gun control argument's legs out from under it.

No "gun crime," no need for gun control. Easy peasy.

A recent arrest in Pennsylvania highlights this quite well.

Law enforcement officials in Montgomery County have arrested seven people -- six from Philadelphia and one from Norristown -- in an effort to dismantle, what they called, a gun and drug trafficking organization that illegally bought and sold firearms along with methamphetamine.

...

According to a statement on the arrests, officials began an investigation into this group after members of the organization attended the Oaks Gun Show, where members of the group "purchased multiple firearms and exhibited suspicious behavior."

A follow up investigation found that those charged in this case, allegedly, purchased and illegally sold 19 firearms between Jan. 19, 2023 and Feb. 26, 2024.

It also seems that these guys were obliterating serial numbers on the guns they purchased so they couldn't be traced back to them.

Clearly, these people weren't on the up-and-up.

However, they were alerted not because of a gun at a crime scene but because people at the evil gun show realized something was hinky with this bunch and notified the authorities, who investigated and found that yes, they were doing something illegal.

You didn't need to close any supposed loopholes, either.

"Then why doesn't this happen more often?"

Fair question. 

First, it probably does. It just doesn't make our radar. We can't see every arrest where people were trying to traffic guns but signaled they were up to no good. Sometimes we see it and there isn't enough time to cover it, but I suspect most of the time, it doesn't show up in our searches, so we can't report on it.

Second, these guys were sending out indications they were up to no good. Not every would-be gun trafficker is going to do that. Some are smart enough to stay under the radar. They don't go to gun shows where everyone can see their every interaction. They're low-key and smart.

These guys...weren't.

But you don't need more laws to catch these people. What you need in most cases is to establish trust with the gun community so they feel comfortable saying, "Hey, these guys are doing some shady stuff. You might want to check them out," rather than the antagonistic one the ATF has fostered over the decades.

Instead of doing that, though, they're just going to make it harder for us while pretty much ignoring these kinds of knobs that walk among us. Just another case of our tax dollars at work.

Especially since the ATF's failure to do any such thing leads to more crimes committed by illegal firearms.