There is an old saying that figures don't lie, but liars figure and that a lie told often enough becomes the truth to many people. In the Feb 2013 issue of "The Whistle Blower" magazine on page 46, there is an article spelling out the bogus claim from the Obama Administration (often repeated I might add for effect) concerning 40% of gun purchases somehow evade background checks. The comments that follow are excerpts and my own input from the Whistleblower editors.
The article looks at the facts:
Veteran journalist John Fund indicates the off-cited 40% figure (which was actually 36%) come from a SMALL 251 person survey on gun sales back during the Clinton Administration. What's more, the study was done BEFORE THE BRADY ACT instituted mandatory federal background checks in early 1994, which means it severely underestimated the percentage of sales that required checks.
CURRENT federal law REQUIRES "anyone engaged in the business of selling guns" to get a license and ensure that sales go through background checks, whether in a shop or AT A GUN SHOW. ANYONE WITH A FELONY CONVICTION, MISDEMEANOR or a history of mental illness is denied a gun.
The survey also simply asked buyers if they THOUGHT they were buying from a licensed dealer. The survey also included guns transferred as inheritances, or as gifts from family members. Even given that 85% of guns bought, traded, borrowed, rented or issued as a requirement of the job or won through raffles also went through Federal Licenses and would have been subject to background checks.
Bottom line is that perhaps on the high side maybe 10%, (AND NOT 40%) were not subject to background checks.
Could the purpose of quoting over and over again the bogus 40% figure be to drive a wedge between staunch opponents of gun control such as the NRA and the average gun owner because background checks are easily the most popular proposal??????? Seems Like It!
A Pew Research Center poll sows the public closely divided on banning so called "Assault Weapons", however 85% support universal background checks. Repeating false information over and over and over again has the average gun owner asking why are the so called assault weapon guys so against background checks. To me if is "Divide and Conquer" with half truths, outright lies and outdated deceitful information.
Please keep in mind that background checks wound NOT have stopped the killers in Newtown, Conn., or Aurora, CO. Adam Lanza stole his guns from his mother's storage locker after killing her, and Joseph Holmes mental illness was not reported to authorities.
Dan
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