Personal Sale Background Check

[Dale00]

In case anyone suffers from low blood pressure, I offer the following as a public service announcement. Lots more info beyond these excerpts can be found at the Smart Gun Laws Save Lives website.

Justification for the coming personal sale background check requirement:

Private sales represent a significant conduit for illegal gun trafficking.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) found that during one 29-month period, unlicensed sellers were involved in about one-fifth of illegal trafficking investigations nationwide and associated with nearly 23,000 trafficked guns.
A study which used crime gun trace data from 53 U.S. cities for the years 2000–2002 found that laws regulating private handgun sales are strongly associated with fewer trafficked guns.
A 2009 GAO report found that “secondary firearms — firearms resold following the first retail purchase from an FFL, or ‘used guns’ — are commonly trafficked to Mexico.”
Another report observed that the lack of background check and record retention requirements for private gun transfers “continue to make it much easier for prohibited persons to purchase firearms and much harder for U.S. authorities to successfully trace how a firearm illegally reached Mexico.”

Gun offenders overwhelmingly obtain their guns through private sales. A survey of state prison inmates in 13 states who were convicted of gun offenses found that only 13.4% obtained the gun from a gun store or pawnshop, where background checks are required. Nearly all (96.1%) of those inmates who were already prohibited from possessing a gun at the time of the crime obtained the firearm through an unlicensed private seller.

When background checks are required, they are extremely effective at keeping guns out of the hands of prohibited persons. Since the federal background check requirement was adopted in 1994, over two million prohibited persons have been denied a firearm transfer or permit. In 2010 alone, more than 117,000 gun transfers were denied using the federal background check system.

Researchers confirm that universal background check laws effectively improve public safety and save lives. Research has found that states with universal background check laws experience 48 percent less gun trafficking, 38 percent fewer deaths of women shot by intimate partners, and 17 percent fewer firearms involved in aggravated assaults.States with universal background check requirements also have a 53 percent lower gun suicide rate, and 31 percent fewer suicides per capita than states without these laws. This correlation is unchanged even after controlling for the effects of poverty, population density, age, education, and race/ethnicity.

Repeated polls have shown that over 90% of the American public supports laws requiring background checks on all gun purchasers, regardless of whether they buy weapons from licensed dealers or private sellers.A survey conducted for the New England Journal of Medicine in January 2013 found that 84% of gun owners and 74% of NRA members also support requiring a universal background check system for all gun sales.

http://smartgunlaws.org/universal-gun-background-checks-policy-summary/

 

[Fyrtwuck]

A 2009 GAO report found that “secondary firearms - firearms resold following the first retail purchase from an FFL, or ‘used guns’ - are commonly trafficked to Mexico.”

I wonder if those numbers include those sold during the "Fast and Furious" operation?

 

[chuter]

we'll probably be hearing more articles and news stories like this before dear leader lowers the hammer. Just one more law and we'll have the gun violence thing under control.

 

[dennishoddy]

I love how they are using the term "trafficking" like its a crime.

Why don't they use "legal transaction between sellers"?

The stupid idiots don't even take into consideration that the majority of criminals are using guns illegally acquired.

 

[Fyrtwuck]

And as usual, they are not after the people that are committing the crimes, just the guns.

 

[druryj]

And as usual, they are not after the people that are committing the crimes, just the guns.

But...but...if it wasn't for the evil guns, these people wouldn't commit the crimes. Guns are bad! Guns take a good person and make them evil! Don't you know that it's just hard for some people to have to get up in the morning and go to work and actually have to earn money legally? Golly gee, can't you get it? I mean, after a long hard night of snorting up meth and dope, it's so much easier to just rob and steal for these poor unfortunate people who for some reason or other don't wannna work. Why, some of these so-called criminals had rough childhoods after all, some of them even had parents who divorced, or teachers in school who were too hard. Can you imagine that? Huh? Can you? So why should they have to work to get money? Don't we just owe them the right to rob, rape, murder, burgull, and sell dope to kids to ease the stress of their difficult lives? If we would only do away with guns, it would make their lives so much easier; then they wouldn't have to worry about getting their azz shot to shizz by mean guys like you and the rest of youse meanies in here! I say we should ban guns so bad guys will have it easier, then everything will be alright. There; simple. Doh! You gun people are all stoopid anyway.

 

[rhart]

I suppose that an "unlicensed private seller" includes the thug on the corner selling stolen guns...

 

[MaddSkillz]

74% of the NRA wants universal background checks? Is that real?

 

[twoguns?]

But...but...if it wasn't for the evil guns, these people wouldn't commit the crimes. Guns are bad! Guns take a good person and make them evil! Don't you know that it's just hard for some people to have to get up in the morning and go to work and actually have to earn money legally? Golly gee, can't you get it? I mean, after a long hard night of snorting up meth and dope, it's so much easier to just rob and steal for these poor unfortunate people who for some reason or other don't wannna work. Why, some of these so-called criminals had rough childhoods after all, some of them even had parents who divorced, or teachers in school who were too hard. Can you imagine that? Huh? Can you? So why should they have to work to get money? Don't we just owe them the right to rob, rape, murder, burgull, and sell dope to kids to ease the stress of their difficult lives? If we would only do away with guns, it would make their lives so much easier; then they wouldn't have to worry about getting their azz shot to shizz by mean guys like you and the rest of youse meanies in here! I say we should ban guns so bad guys will have it easier, then everything will be alright. There; simple. Doh! You gun people are all stoopid anyway.

You obviously dont know how hard it is to rob and steal after a hard night....and gettin shot at and and chased by popo....;/

 

[rhart]

74% of the NRA wants universal background checks? Is that real?

I doubt it. I heard they did some kind of poll that was designed to elicit a preferred response so they could spin it the way they wanted afterwards.