Hillary's Gun Show and Internet Gun Sales Lie

Hillary Clinton endlessly repeats a stale and false statistic that 40% of gun sales at gun shows and over the Internet are transacted without background checks.

So, where does that 40% statistic actually come from?

It originated from a 1994 randomized telephone survey in which only 251 gun owners were  interviewed over a given period.  Once the questioner was able to determine that the called party had a gun or guns or any access to them, a simple Yes or No question was asked as to whether or not it was purchased from a licensed firearm dealer.  If the answer was anything other than a definite "yes", the "no" box was checked off.  Even if the party honestly couldn't remember; or if the gun was purchased by someone else in the household;  or if the firearm may have been received as a gift or an inheritance where it was very possibly purchased from a licensed firearm dealer.  As a result, 64.3% said the guns were purchased from a licensed dealer and checked "yes", and 35.7% were checked "no".  Since then, gun control advocates have rounded that number up to 40% while it was more accurately closer to 35%.

Also understand that the Federal background check system didn't exist in 1994.  It wasn't until late 1998 that that background checks were started as part of the Brady Bill.  Further, the Brady bill made many types of gun transfers without background checks a felony.  For example, it is a felony to transfer a firearm across state lines. It is also a felony to transfer it to a person who:

1. Has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
2. Is a fugitive from justice.
3. Is an unlawful user of, or addicted to any controlled substance.
4. Has been adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution.
5. Is an alien illegally or unlawfully in the United States.
6. Has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions.
7. Having been a citizen of the United States, has renounced U.S. citizenship.
8. Is subject to a court order that restrains the person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such intimate partner
9. Has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

With this list in mind, does anyone really believe that a seller at a gun show or on the Internet would risk being charged with a federal felony for selling a gun to someone that they don't know and who may fit any of the restricted categories outlined above?  I don't think so.

Also, Hillary persists in applying that 40% figure to gun show and internet sales when that study conducted in 1994 had nothing to do with either background checks, gun shows, or the Internet.

Now to the truth.

Just recently, the Washington Post gave Hillary 3 Pinocchios for that 40% claim.  In defending themselves, the Post wrote this, among other things:

Unpublished data from the 2004 National Firearms Survey, provided by Lisa Hepburn of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, show that about 30 percent of firearm transactions were gifts or inheritances and 70 percent were purchases (42 percent came from a store, 9 percent from a private sale, 8 percent from a family or friend, 7 percent from a gun show, 2 percent from a pawn shop and 1 percent “other”).

Thus, only 7 percent of the 70% of the respondents to that survey said they purchased a gun at a gun show.  That means that less than 5% of all legal gun owners (4.9%)  got their guns from a gun show when you calculate the percentage on the basis of 100% of the respondents to the survey.   Even if 100% of those 4.9% were all obtained without a background check, it is nowhere near 40%.  Further, the Internet was a non-issue in this survey.  Perhaps, Internet sales are part of the 1% of the 70% that are labelled "other".  Again, even if all of those purchases were without background checks, that fact makes Hillary an even bigger liar.

As I have often written in this blog, Hillary Clinton is completely distorting the facts on many issues in order to get votes from her political base.  Maybe she should study the details of the Brady Bill. that her husband signed into law and which, in most cases, closed the supposed gun show loophole and made it nearly illegal to sell guns on the Internet without a background check. If you buy a gun on the Internet it must be from a licensed dealer who will send the gun that you bought to another licensed firearm dealer, who will then conduct the check. That's the truth. Note this explanation from Internet dealer grabagun.com:

Click on Image to Enlarge

Further, a Justice Department survey of thousands of inmates in both federal and state prison found that less than 1 percent said they obtained their guns at a gun show.

Click on Image to Enlarge

I am certain that we will continue to hear the 40% lie. Something that Hillary is well versed in.

References:

Fact Checker:  Clinton’s claim that 40 percent of guns are sold at gun shows and over the Internet: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/10/16/clintons-claim-that-40-percent-of-guns-are-sold-at-gun-shows-and-over-the-internet/

Brady Bill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Handgun_Violence_Prevention_Act

FBI NiCS Background Checks by Month/year: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf

Buying A Gun Online - The Ordering Process Explained!: Skip Graphic and go to the bottom: http://grabagun.com/ordering-guide

Department of Justice: Firearm Source Table 10: http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fuo.pdf