ownership—especially when those guns are owned legally.
FORTY PERCENT OF ALL GUNS ARE SOLD WITHOUT BACKGROUND CHECKS.
“But it’s hard to enforce that law when as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check. That’s not safe. That’s not smart.It’s not fair to responsible gun buyers or sellers . . . . ”
—PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA , January 16, 2013
“40 percent of all gun trades, there’s no background check.”
—PIERS MORGAN , December 21, 2012
“40 percent of gun sales now take place privately, including most guns that are later used in crimes.”
—NEW YORK TIMES (editorial), January 14, 2013
I could probably fill the rest of this book with quotes from gun control activists using some version of this same statement.It’s been printed in the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Even on the normally skeptical Fox News channel, we heard Chris Wallace asserting that “in 40 percent of the [gun] sales there isno such screen on the person buying the gun.” Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) went even further, claiming that the number is actually “48 percent of gun sales.”
It is repeated so often that it’s now mostly accepted as fact even though most people who use it have no idea where it originally came from. Even more troubling is that this shocking “fact” provided the principal rationale for the president’s first announced gun control proposal: “universal background checks.” After all, if current gun purchase rules are so lax that almost half of all weapons are obtained without a background check, then there would seem to be much room for improvement.
The truth, however, is that this statistic is way off. The real number is likely less than 10 percent. I’ll explain in a bit, but first some background on where the “40 percent” number comes from.
In 1997, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) undertook a study on gun ownership using data collected from a telephone survey done in 1994. (There’s the first red flag: these numbers are nearly twenty years old.) The survey, which included 2,568 households, asked several questions about gun ownership—including how the guns were obtained.
Of those people who told the researcher how they obtained their gun (second red flag: only 251 of the 2,568 people answered this question),35.7 percent said they acquired it from someone other than a licensed dealer. This number has conveniently been rounded up to 40 percent as the years have passed. According to a PolitiFact analysis of the underlying data in this survey,researchers in some cases “made a judgment call” when respondents weren’t clear about where they obtained the gun.
So, we already have four big problems with this number (it’s a twenty-year-old number based on answers from just 251 people that was rounded up to 40 percent for no good reason and was subject to the “judgment” of researchers), but there are many more.
Problem five is that this statistic pertains to all transfers of firearms, not just purchases, which is the term the president used. A very large portion of guns change hands through inheritances and gifts. Grandpa’s old rifle ends up with a grandchild; a husband gives his wife his old handgun for protection, etc. In the 1994 survey, 29 percent of people who answered the question about the origin of their gun said it came from a family member or friend.
Common sense tells us that the government is not going to be able to impose background checks on those transfers (and, if fact,even President Obama’s background check proposal excludes gun transfers within a family). If a husband has purchased a gun from a licensed dealer and has cleared the background checks, the gun will physically be at the home anyway and nothing would prevent his spouse from using it as well. Who technically “owns” the gun is a moot question.
The Washington Post, at the prompting of John Lott, asked the researchers who
FORTY PERCENT OF ALL GUNS ARE SOLD WITHOUT BACKGROUND CHECKS.
“But it’s hard to enforce that law when as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check. That’s not safe. That’s not smart.It’s not fair to responsible gun buyers or sellers . . . . ”
—PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA , January 16, 2013
“40 percent of all gun trades, there’s no background check.”
—PIERS MORGAN , December 21, 2012
“40 percent of gun sales now take place privately, including most guns that are later used in crimes.”
—NEW YORK TIMES (editorial), January 14, 2013
I could probably fill the rest of this book with quotes from gun control activists using some version of this same statement.It’s been printed in the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Even on the normally skeptical Fox News channel, we heard Chris Wallace asserting that “in 40 percent of the [gun] sales there isno such screen on the person buying the gun.” Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) went even further, claiming that the number is actually “48 percent of gun sales.”
It is repeated so often that it’s now mostly accepted as fact even though most people who use it have no idea where it originally came from. Even more troubling is that this shocking “fact” provided the principal rationale for the president’s first announced gun control proposal: “universal background checks.” After all, if current gun purchase rules are so lax that almost half of all weapons are obtained without a background check, then there would seem to be much room for improvement.
The truth, however, is that this statistic is way off. The real number is likely less than 10 percent. I’ll explain in a bit, but first some background on where the “40 percent” number comes from.
In 1997, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) undertook a study on gun ownership using data collected from a telephone survey done in 1994. (There’s the first red flag: these numbers are nearly twenty years old.) The survey, which included 2,568 households, asked several questions about gun ownership—including how the guns were obtained.
Of those people who told the researcher how they obtained their gun (second red flag: only 251 of the 2,568 people answered this question),35.7 percent said they acquired it from someone other than a licensed dealer. This number has conveniently been rounded up to 40 percent as the years have passed. According to a PolitiFact analysis of the underlying data in this survey,researchers in some cases “made a judgment call” when respondents weren’t clear about where they obtained the gun.
So, we already have four big problems with this number (it’s a twenty-year-old number based on answers from just 251 people that was rounded up to 40 percent for no good reason and was subject to the “judgment” of researchers), but there are many more.
Problem five is that this statistic pertains to all transfers of firearms, not just purchases, which is the term the president used. A very large portion of guns change hands through inheritances and gifts. Grandpa’s old rifle ends up with a grandchild; a husband gives his wife his old handgun for protection, etc. In the 1994 survey, 29 percent of people who answered the question about the origin of their gun said it came from a family member or friend.
Common sense tells us that the government is not going to be able to impose background checks on those transfers (and, if fact,even President Obama’s background check proposal excludes gun transfers within a family). If a husband has purchased a gun from a licensed dealer and has cleared the background checks, the gun will physically be at the home anyway and nothing would prevent his spouse from using it as well. Who technically “owns” the gun is a moot question.
The Washington Post, at the prompting of John Lott, asked the researchers who
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