Lying for Christ

It is very appalling to see clergy misusing their status to push political agendas, but that is what Rev. Adams-Riley, Rector and potential multi-level marketing spammer of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA is doing. See his message on Constant Contact (considered an email spamming service by some people) about a gun show he attended.

The problem here is that he says a lot of things that are outright misleading.

And, in case you were wondering further: "AR-15" stands for "ArmaLite Model 15," an assault rifle capable of firing up to 800 rounds per minute; and accurate at up to 600 yards.

Scary! They are selling machine guns to the public... except... full-auto AR-15s, like all fully-automatic firearms, are highly regulated and it is unlikely that you can just pick one up at a gun show. Even for the full-auto version there's the little problem of magazine capacity -- feeding 800 rounds per minute would be very difficult when you have to change magazines every 20 rounds or so.

The image Rev. Adams-Riley is trying to convey is of a machine gun... something like this:

The M2 Machine Gun. Photo courtesy of the US Army.

The AR-15 is the most popular sporting rifle sold in the United States today, btw. Let's continue:

I went in company with a fellow Richmond pastor, as well as with two people whose respective children were victims in the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. (Both children survived.) 

No agenda there, huh? This is a clear attempt to side step any reasoned argument with emotion. What Rev. Adams-Riley doesn't tell you is that the Virginia Tech shooter didn't buy his guns at a gun show, nor did he use an AR-15. That doesn't matter though, because the reverend is trying to make you tear up.

We saw a 50 caliber assault rifle.

I seriously doubt it. The M2 pictured above is chambered in .50 caliber. Does it look like it can be carried and shoulder fired by an individual, as is required to meet the definition of assault rifle? It is mounted on that tank for a reason... it, and the ammunition needed to feed it, are darn heavy.

Once you've completed the form, a background check takes 90 seconds. And yet, unlike at actual gun shops, a background check is not required at gun shows in Virginia.

Wrong, wrong, wrong! It takes far longer than 90 seconds, as the Virginia State Police have to check every name in 13 separate databases, with checks sometimes taking days. If Rev. Adams-Riley had bothered to read his own local newspaper, he'd know this. According to the article, more and more background checks are occurring and many background checks are not being completed by the time gun shows close. But how is that possible if there are no background checks being conducted at gun shows, as Rev. Adams-Riley has stated?

Because, once again, Rev. Adams-Riley has left out some crucial information. All federally licensed dealers are required to run a background check no matter where they sell a firearm: at their gun shop, at a gun show, or even the front parlor of Rev. Adams-Riley's own house.

Oh, and one more thing about background checks, gun shows, and the emotion of the Virginia Tech shootings: Seung-Hui Cho passed two separate background checks.

It's called "the gun show loophole."

No, it's called being dishonest. There is no such thing as a gun-show loophole.

Unlike Rev. Adams-Riley, I am not going to hide information here. What the reverend is getting at is the fact that law abiding citizens may legally sell a firearm to another individual, so long as they know that individual is not a felon or prohibited from owning a firearm (meaning, it is illegal to knowingly sell a firearm to a felon). That has nothing to do with gun shows, because this can happen anywhere. And it is also illegal for an individual to act as a firearms dealer without being federally licensed. Meaning that those people with tables full of guns to sell at gun shows are licensed dealers and are conducting background checks on each of their customers.

So why does he call it the "gun-show loophole"? He does it to mislead the reader. And in the case of Rev. Adams-Riley, he does it to mislead his congregation and he does it in the name of Christ.