Claim: Advocates for gun control are wrong in claiming that there is a "gun show loophole" that allows individuals who are disqualified from legally buying a gun, and would fail a federal background check, to buy one anyway at gun shows. In fact, this purported "loophole" is a myth.
Example: "One of the most often repeated gun myths is that of the gun show loophole...the common claim of no background check sales at gun shows is false" (The Daily Caller)
Response: There is some truth to claims that there is no "gun show loophole", insofar as there is nothing in federal law that specifically allows guns to be sold without background checks. As Sean Davis correctly noted at the Federalist, "There is no loophole in federal law that specifically exempts gun show transactions from any other laws normally applied to gun sales. Not one." Instead, federal law requires all gun sellers conduct background checks on prospective buyers unless they are unlicensed. And who is required to be licensed? Everyone "engaged in the business of dealing in firearms", which excludes private sellers who are not primarily selling firearms to make money. Such unlicensed sellers can sell firearms without conducting background checks at gun shows, or in other places.
Adding to the complication is the fact that a significant proportion of gun vendors at gun shows are federally licensed--by some estimates, in fact, the majority of them are, meaning that they must conduct background checks. As Politifact pointed out in 2016, for example, "A 1999 federal study by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that those with federal firearm licenses make up 50 to 75 percent of the vendors at gun shows. But that included vendors who sold guns or other paraphernalia and accessories, so it was difficult to tell how many sold only guns."
What all this means is that the phrase "gun show loophole" is inherently misleading, as The Trace has pointed out. But it is clear that a substantial percent of gun transfers in the U.S., whether they happen at gun shows or not, are conducted without a background check. A recent survey found that such transfers comprised 22% of all gun transfers conducted in the last two years.
Further reading:
A blog post I wrote on this subject back in January 2016
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