gathering data - is it really 40%?

97% (rounded to nearest whole number) did not involve a background check.

These statistics are probably very misleading.

Many of us trade firearms back and forth among acquaintances and even friends. If you personally know each other, the firearm transfer did indeed involve a "background check." The value of personal knowledge was at least one time recognized by the state. For example, it used to be (maybe still is) that a Notary Public could notarize without ID if they personally knew the individual.

Indeed, personal knowledge is actually MORE invasive than a government background check, which can only find things that have been officially reported to the government.

I have a friend that works for the FBI. REGARDLESS of the background check, to be hired they will find many of your relatives and friends and ask them about you. They will do so every couple years while you work there, including talking to ex-wives.

That number came from data that was acquired before NICS was in effect...

My stance is that if you are not currently incarcerated or have relinquished your rights in some other way, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to pick one up off the shelf and purchase it.

None of my handguns involved a background check.

All of my long guns did.

Didn't the 40% number come from some survey done in the 90's of only 300 people +/-?

It is not really relevant though as they do not want to connect those sales to crimes. There is way too much data out there that shows that private sales (not straw purchases) don't really contribute to many guns on the streets.

This article does a pretty good summation of how guns get to the street:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html

Straw Purchases
Corrupt FFL
Guns lost, stolen missing from FFL
Guys selling guns from the sources in this list
Stolen

It does not even touch personal sales.

It is all politics and agenda. The left wants guns out of the hands of citizens. This is just a ruse to do it.

The Sandy Hook shooter failed a background check. The VA Tech shooter passed.

Background checks will solve nothing.

Black_water said:

Didn't the 40% number come from some survey done in the 90's of only 300 people +/-?

Click to expand...

Agree with basically everything you said.

However, I do want to point out that even a survey of only 300, if done correctly (which is the hardest part by far), can be accurate to within about 6%, even when used to extrapolate to a population of 300 million.

Doesn't mean the survey in question was accurate, I just want people to understand that even relatively small groups (absolute minimum 100) are pretty effective representatives of very very large groups.



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arentol said:

Agree with basically everything you said.

However, I do want to point out that even a survey of only 300, if done correctly (which is the hardest part by far), can be accurate to within about 6%, even when used to extrapolate to a population of 300 million.

Doesn't mean the survey in question was accurate, I just want people to understand that even relatively small groups (absolute minimum 100) are pretty effective representatives of very very large groups.



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Click to expand...

Ahhhh but the questions have to be written perfectly to prevent unintended bias in the answers AND the sample has to actually reflect the population....that's probably the hardest to try to get or correct for.

Every gun I have bought except for my first pistol I have had my CCP, and when I bought that 1st pistol I was waiting for my permit to come in the mail which it did a couple weeks later. this was back in '93 before they had background checks. When I buy guns from a dealer, I hand them my permit and there is no background check, as my permit is the background check. So depending on how you want to look at it either all of my guns purchased through an FFL since the brady bill have been with a background check, or none of my purchases whether FFL or private had a background check. One guy a bought an AK from an internet ad made me sign a piece of paper saying I bought the gun from him and he was no longer liable for whatever the gun did. He never asked to see my permit or ask if I had one.