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PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: December 4, 2002
ICHV: Classified Ads for Guns in Newspapers Jeoprdizes Public Safety
Peoria, IL – The unregulated sale of firearms through classified ads in newspapers poses a potential threat to public safety according to the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. The Illinois Council, joined by Champaign County Health Care Consumers, made its claim at a press conference held today in Peoria.
Under the Brady law, federally licensed gun dealers are required to conduct criminal background checks on all buyers and maintain records of their transactions. However, unlicensed individuals selling firearms from a "personal collection" are not required to conduct background checks or keep records.
Most Americans have heard of the gun show loophole, a loophole in federal law that allows unlicensed sellers to sell guns at gun shows without conducting a criminal background check on the buyer. But gun shows are just one venue for the unregulated sale of firearms by unlicensed sellers without a background check. Other venues include flea markets, estate sales, firearm sales over the Internet, and firearm sales through classified ads in newspapers.
"We call the unregulated sale of firearms through classified ads in newspapers the newspaper loophole," said Thom Mannard, executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. "And like the gun show loophole, the newspaper loophole allows felons, domestic abusers, minors, and other persons in prohibited categories to buy firearms with no criminal background check, no record of sale, no questions asked. This puts Illinoisans at increased risk of gun violence."
To support its claim, the Illinois Council points to a 1999 incident in Illinois and Indiana. In June of 1999, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, a member of a white supremacist hate group, attempted to purchase two handguns and a shotgun from a federally licensed gun dealer in Peoria Heights, Ill. However, the purchase was denied when a criminal background check revealed that Smith was subject to a court restraining order secured by an ex-girlfriend.
Three days later, Smith purchased two guns - a Bryco .38 caliber handgun and a Ruger .22 caliber handgun - from Donald Fiessinger of Pekin, Ill. Fiessinger advertised the guns sold to Smith in the classified section of the Peoria Journal Star newspaper.¹
Over the following July 4th weekend, Smith went on a shooting spree in Illinois and Indiana that targeted African Americans, Jews, and Asians, killing two and wounding nine others. Killed were Ricky Byrdsong, former Northwestern University basketball coach, and Won-Joon Yoon, a South Korean doctoral student at Indiana University. The spree ended when Smith committed suicide following a police chase after his car was spotted in southern Illinois.
The Illinois Council released a letter it sent to John McConnell, publisher of the Peoria Journal Star, the newspaper that ran the gun ads used by Smith to buy his guns. The letter asked the newspaper to change its classified advertising policy and discontinue taking classified ads for guns from unlicensed sellers. The letter notes that the newspaper still takes classified ads for all guns - rifles, shotguns, and handguns.
Brooke Anderson, gun regulation organizer for the Champaign County Health Care Consumers, said, "We recognize that classified ads for guns are perfectly legal under current federal and Illinois state law. But just because something is legal doesn't mean it is good policy. Especially when that policy jeopardizes public safety."
According to Tim Rollet, classified advertising manager for the Peoria Journal Star, the newspaper reconsidered its classified ad policy after the Smith incident and decided that the ad had nothing to do with the crime. "It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances," according to Rollet.
But according to Anderson, the newspaper's policy of allowing unlicensed sellers to advertise guns in the classified section of the newspaper jeopardized public safety. "The consequences of the newspaper's classified advertising policy were both predictable and inevitable," said Anderson.
John Johnson, executive director of Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence, and coordinator for the national campaign, explained that the objective of the campaign is not to criticize newspapers for their current policy, but to explain the concern with the unregulated sale of firearms through classified ads in newspapers. Johnson noted that the Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Enquirer, Miami Herald, Sandusky (Ohio) Register and Willoughby (Ohio) News Herald changed their classified advertising policies on guns after the newspaper loophole was brought to their attention. "We are confident that other newspapers, like the Chicago Tribune, will reconsider their classified advertising policy in the interest of public safety," said Johnson.
¹ Over a two-year period (1997-1999), Fiessinger purchased 65 inexpensive handguns - often referred to as Saturday Night Specials - from a single gun store, the Old Prairie Trading Post in Pekin, Ill. He then resold the guns through classified ads he took out in local newspapers, selling them at up to twice the store price.
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