Petition asks Cabela's to change gun sales policy

COLUMBIA - Two groups have presented a petition with more than 100,000 names to Cabela's of Greenville asking the outdoor store to change its gun policy so that sales are not completed until federal background checks are finished.

Currently, federal law allows a gun sale to proceed even if a background check is not complete if the buyer has waited three days since starting the purchase.

Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old charged in the shooting deaths of nine people at an historic black church in Charleston on June 17, was allowed to purchase his .45-caliber handgun because federal authorities could not locate the arrest records within the three-day period that showed a drug charge the FBI says would have disqualified him from purchasing a gun.

The South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, delivered Tuesday's petitions as part of a nationwide campaign calling on retailers not to allow gun sales until background checks are complete.

"We've seen too many times that it just takes one gun in the wrong hands to wreak havoc and change lives forever," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown. "That's why we're calling on Congress to step up and put public safety ahead of the interests of the gun lobby. We are paying for these lax gun laws with American lives."

The groups are asking Congress to change what they describe as the "Charleston Loophole" so the law no longer allows gun sales without completed background checks.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of Columbia already has filed such legislation. State Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Columbia Democrat, has announced she plans to file a similar bill in December in the South Carolina Legislature.

According to the groups, a National Rifle Association-backed amendment to the 1993 Brady Bill created a loophole that over the last five years has allowed more than 15,000 gun sales to "dangerous people" because a background check could not be completed within the three-day period required by the law.

The petition drop-offs are a part of #NoCheckNoSale, a Moms Demand campaign calling on retailers — starting with Cabela's — to adopt the same policy that Wal-Mart and others have adopted to not proceed with a gun sale until a background check is completed. The petition has received more than 100,000 signatures in its first week, according to the organization.

In 2008, Wal-Mart worked with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, now part of Everytown, to develop and agree to the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership, a 10-point code to help ensure dangerous people do not obtain guns, including no sales without a completed background check. Big 5 Sporting Goods, Academy Sports and Outdoors, and Dick's Sporting Goods have also confirmed the same policy, according to the organizations.

They also charged that the man accused of shooting to death four Marines and one sailor in Chattanooga recently obtained his gun from an online site where the organizations charged that 77 percent of ads are posted by unlicensed sellers who are not required to conduct background checks.

"This calls to light how easy it is for dangerous people to take advantage of the online sales loophole to buy guns, no questions asked," Feinblatt said.