People who support gun control, like President Obama, are willing to lie and deceve in order to convince you that they are right!
Raise your hand if you're surprised.
Apparently the President has claimed, "as many as 40 percent of guns are purchased without a background check."
John Lott points out that this "fact" missed a few things, and is a bit out of date.
Actually, the number reported was a bit lower, 36 percent, and as we will see the true number of guns “sold” without check is closer to 10 percent. More important, the number comes from a 251-person survey on gun sales two decades ago, early in the Clinton administration. More than three-quarters of the survey covered sales before the Brady Act instituted mandatory federal background checks on February 28, 1994. In addition, guns are not sold in the same way today that they were sold two decades ago.(disclosure: a close relative had an FFL license in the '80s, he bought and sold guns but had no gun store. Because of the laws he no longer has the FFL license.)
The number of federally licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) today is only a fraction of what it was. Today there are only 118,000; while back in 1993 there were over 283,000. Smaller dealers, many operating out of their homes, were forced out by various means, including much higher costs for licenses.
The survey asked buyers if they thought they were buying from a licensed firearms dealer. While all FFLs do background checks, those perceived as being FFLs were the only ones counted. Yet, there is much evidence that survey respondents who went to the very smallest FFLs, especially the “kitchen table” types, had no inkling that the dealer was actually “licensed.” Many buyers seemed to think that only “brick and mortar” stores were licensed dealers, and thus reported not buying from an FFL when in fact they did.
But the high figure comes primarily from including such transactions as inheritances or gifts from family members. Putting aside these various biases, if you look at guns that were bought, traded, borrowed, rented, issued as a requirement of the job, or won through raffles, 85 percent went through FFLs; just 15 percent were transferred without a background check.
If you include these transfers either through FFLs or from family members, the remaining transfers falls to 11.5 percent.
We don’t know the precise number today, but it is hard to believe that it is above single digits.
A twenty year old 251 person survey of people's perceptions. Does that sound like truthful "facts and stats"?
If you come across someone who uses this stat, then tell them that Washington D.C. with its near total gun ban sees 292 murders per year. That was the number of murders in 1995. Apparently it was 108 last year, but saying 292 per year is a better stat then the 40% number for several reasons.
Saying that Washington D.C. has 292 murders per year is more accurate than claiming that 40% of guns are purchased without background checks because:
- 292 murders is an actual statistic
- 40% is a rounded up number from a survey of 251 people
- the 292 murders stat comes from 1995
- the 40% stat comes from 1994
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Joe Manchin (D-WV): “How many of you all believe that there is a movement to take away the Second Amendment?”
About half the hands in the room went up.
In other news: "On Thursday a group of Democratic senators led by Dianne Feinstein of California plans to introduce a bill that would outlaw more than 100 different assault weapons, setting up what promises to be a fraught and divisive debate over gun control in Congress in the coming weeks."
h/t: Vox Day
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There is no plan to ban guns coming!
40% of guns are acquired without a background check!
Stop opposing sensible gun control!
So a president who has already served one term without having a background check done on him, and he has his finger on the button wants background checks on everyone else? Whats wrong with this picture?
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