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Posted on 04/11/2013 7:35:58 PM PDT by Kaslin
Sens. Manchin and Toomey announced their ‘compromise’ on expanding background checks Wednesday, which, among other things, closes the “gun show loophole.” By law, all federal firearms licensees are required to conduct background checks for firearms transactions—even at a gun show. But gun control advocates repeatedly say that 40 percent of all gun purchases at gun shows are private sales and thus, not subject to a background check. Where are they getting this figure from and is it true? Heritage weighs in:
As The Washington Post has pointed out, this 40 percent figure comes from a 1997 report by the National Institute of Justice, a research agency within the Department of Justice, and was based on a telephone survey sample of just 251 people who acquired firearms in 1993 and 1994. This was years before the NICS system went into effect. Of the 251 participants, 35.7 percent said that they didn’t or “probably” didn’t obtain their gun from a licensed firearms dealer. Because the margin of error was +/– 6 percentage points, it was rounded up to 40 percent, although it could just as easily and legitimately have been rounded down below 30 percent.
In addition, if you subtract people who said they got their gun as a gift, inheritance, or prize, the number dropped from 35.7 percent to 26.4 percent. And, in terms of how many people actually buy firearms at gun shows, the data from this same survey indicated that in 1994, only 3.9 percent of firearms purchases were made at gun shows.
So not only is this statistic extremely outdated, it’s also terribly exaggerated. NRA News commentator Colion Noir says the “gun show loophole” is just a red herring.
“Think about it,” he says. “Why would a vendor pay to set up shop at a gun show surrounded by competition if 40 percent of the people coming to the show are merely coming to the show to buy guns privately? I’ll tell you why—because it’s not true.” Continuing to use outdated and exaggerated data is not an argument, he says—it’s an agenda.
Do you have a link for that? Just finding ammo in common calibers is an incredible challenge right now -- never mind firearms.
Those who run the gunshows could have stopped this before it even began, by making it unallowed to make sales at gunshows which do not go through a vendor for at least a state background check. I was at the Kingsporrt show this past weekend, where CNN purchased three pistols and one AR without any ID or checks, paying cash and walking away with the weapons. If the show organizers stopped the ‘non-vendor’ no checks sales in the show and immediate area, the ‘loophole’ would have been controlled at the state level. But then the organizers would not sell as many booths ... more than half of the gun booths in the Kingsport show were not FFL dealers.
They have always also been places for non-licensees to go and buy and sell guns for their personal collections, particularly in pre-internet days.
If vendors are buying and selling guns at gun shows as a business, they are already breaking Federal law if they don't have a license.
What mass shooting of the latest variety would have been prevented if the private sales had to go through NICS check?
None, ZIP, ZERO, NADA, not a single, solitary one.
This is not about preventing crime folks, it's about registration and confiscation.
So....26% of people who were stupid enough to answer a phone survey about gun possession bought them through private sales?
“if you subtract people who said they got their gun as a gift, inheritance, or prize, the number dropped from 35.7 percent to 26.4 percent.”
BIG Deal!!!
Eggs ackley.
“40 percent of all gun purchases at gun shows are private sales”
First of all, I can’t help but notice that the survey that this statistic comes from is over 30 years old.
Secondly, I have been a regular attendee at gun shows in Texas for over 30 years. I have never been to a single one where non-dealer, ‘Gun Show Loophole’ tables have accounted for more that a couple of percent. And most of the private sales I have seen are for Dad’s 12 gauge shotgun, and Uncle Ernie’s 30-30 lever action deer rifle, that someone inherited and has no use for. Not exactly the kind of weapomns one accumulates for a rampage.
Lets say I have collected 20 firearms over the years, and I have decided to sell them off to raise cash. How do I go about running a NICS check on someone? Will I have to get a licensed FFL dealer to run it for me? Sounds like something that will cut into my profits considerably.
And what exactly do they mean by ‘internet sales’? I know of no firearms transaction, initiated on a dealer website, that does not already require the firearm to be sent to a licensed FFL, who will run a NICS check on the purchaser. So, what is this all about???
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