The 40 Percent Unchecked Gun Lie

By Aaron Spuler | January 17, 2013 |

John Fund at National Review absolutely dismantles President Obama’s phony “40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check” factoid today. It’s astonishing just how absolutely and completely false this figure is. It’s not a little clever wordplay or a bit of disingenuous number-twisting from the President; it’s a flat-out lie, and he knows it.

To summarize Fund’s case: the study that purportedly produced the 40 percent figure (which was actually 36 percent, but Obama rounded it up, presumably because he thinks his target audience can’t handle two-digit numbers) comes from a tiny survey of only 251 people, conducted twenty years ago, which means “most of the survey covered sales before the Brady Act instituted mandatory federal background checks in early 1994.”

And those who responded to this survey only thought they might have been buying guns from unlicensed dealers, based on their perception of the seller’s operation. No effort was made to verify if these impressions were accurate. Furthermore, the total included guns transferred as gifts or inheritances – transactions not even President Obama’s new proposals really crack down on.

Read the rest of the article: http://www.humanevents.com/2013/01/17/the-40-percent-unchecked-gun-lie/

Posted in 2nd Amendment, Legislative

2 Comments

  1. Daily Firearms News – Shot Show 2013 Palooza | Gunmart Blog on January 19, 2013 at 9:02 am

    […] The 40 Percent Unchecked Gun Lie […]



  2. Suburban on January 19, 2013 at 4:15 pm

    Yeah, when I thought of the guns in my safe, I figured that “transfers” from father to child, vise versa, and gifts MUST play a large part in the 40% statistic. I’ve got pocket pistols that once belonged to my father’s great uncle. Oh noooo, handguns that have been “transferred” multiple times with no background check! It’s a multi-generational straw-purchase.