The Volusia County Council has repealed a 25-year-old gun ordinance requiring a “cooling-off” period for the sale of firearms, despite urgings to leave the law on the books.
The 1999 county ordinance mandated a three-day wait between the purchase of a gun and the purchaser taking possession of it, along with a criminal-background check of the buyer.
The county’s law primarily affected gun shows and collectors’ exhibits, but private dealers with access by the general public were also covered, even though federal and state laws require background checks of buyers at retail dealers.
It takes an ordinance to repeal or abolish an ordinance. The public hearing on the pending repeal evoked fervent opposition to changing the local law.
“A three-day waiting period is not infringing on anyone’s right to own a gun,” McCool said in the run-up to the council’s vote to repeal the ordinance. “What it is doing is allowing the most vulnerable people that could be allowed through the back door to purchase a gun for unstable reasons to cool off here.”
“If you go through with this vote, and in the affirmative to repeal this, you’re telling the public out here that you know better than what is now going to be mandated. This loophole is being closed for a reason,” McCool said, adding she is “a Second Amendment proponent.”
“This will also encourage people to hurry up and go out and get a gun,” she added. “You know, the argument has been made that if a woman feels threatened and she needs to go and purchase a gun, that this would take away her right to go buy a gun in a domestic violence situation. … A woman going out and buying a gun at a turning point like this, the odds of this gun being turned around and used on her are very high, without proper training.”
Tim Hoover, of Samsula, spoke in similar terms.
“For 25 years, I was a public servant and worked for the fire department. We’ve seen all these shootings that have disabled people,” he said. “There’s a lot of crazy people out there. You would make it easier for someone who is unstable to go and purchase a gun, because there’s really no background check, no FBI fingerprints or anything. … To just go in there and buy a gun and walk out with it and not really know how to own it, how to handle it … I think there should also be some kind of training to even purchase a gun.”
Hoover added his wife and daughter had undergone training in the safe use of guns.
“How often do we here in Volusia County have gun shows?” asked County Council Member Jake Johansson.
“I believe it’s nine a year,” replied Assistant County Attorney Christopher Ryan, adding the number of gun shows within the county has varied in recent years because of the pandemic and related closings.
“Nine times a year I can decide to act irresponsibly and go buy a gun at a gun show and do something about it,” Johansson followed up, “but the other 350 or 345 days a year I can go to any friend, relative or anybody, a private citizen and buy a weapon from them. … I’m just wondering if a bunch of people can get together at a private residence and buy and sell guns to each other.”
“That should be OK. I believe so,” Ryan replied.
“And if you’re invited, you can go,” Johansson said. “I’m just trying to figure out why being in public is different from being in private as far as the argument that unstable people can buy weapons. I think they have access to weapons. I think they have friends that have weapons, probably. And as far as other people thinking they need a weapon. If those people are not mentally unstable, they usually wait the three days and get the weapon, anyhow. They’re not acting in a fit of rage.”
Ryan noted changes in federal law prohibit anyone from falsely claiming he/she is selling guns “from a personal collection in an attempt to evade the law” and the requirement to secure a federal firearms dealer’s license.
“The statute explicitly states that making occasional sales of firearms from a personal collection or liquidating a personal collection does not require a federal firearms license or background checks,” Ryan told the council, reading into the record a federal paper. “However, people have evaded the background-check requirement by falsely claiming they are selling their personal collection. … A bona fide personal collection is not the same as business inventory.”
Council Member David Santiago joined the discussion.
“So, someone could buy a bunch of guns, saying that this is a hobby — I’ve bought all these guns, … and if I want to go to the Fairgrounds and participate in the next gun show, and I’m now selling my hobby guns, that loophole exists to circumvent whatever the Feds just did,” he said.
“I can’t speak about how the regulation will come down to our [unintelligible], but I believe it’s possible, yes,” Ryan said.
“There’s still going to be gaps in this,” Santiago added.
“Most likely, yes,” Ryan replied.
The council voted unanimously, 7-0, to repeal the old law with its waiting period.
