How many times have we heard or read some version of these quotes from the iconic gun control advocates - President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Piers Morgan, et al?
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“Why wouldn’t we want to close the loophole that allows as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases to take place without a background check?” — President Obama, remarks on gun safety, March 28, 2013
“FACT: Nearly 40% of all gun sales don't require a background check under current law. #DemandAction” — tweet from @BarackObama, March 28
"Today, about 40 percent of guns are purchased without a background check." - Kirsten Gillibrand on Thursday, January 24th, 2013 in an interview on MSNBC"There's a loophole where you can sell guns without a background check … 40 percent of guns are sold that way" - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, July 2012
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It's too bad for their ideological push to infringe on Americans' constitutionally provided 2nd Amendment rights that that statistic and others they use are false and that they are nothing but liars each and every time they use them.
The 40% number was debunked by several sources shortly after it began circulating in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. So why is it still in use then? Because it's powerful, it sounds so compelling and because influential gun control advocates know that if they led with the truth they'd wouldn't be successful in pushing their anti-gun agenda. The Washington Post originally assigned a "Verdict Pending" status to this in the wake of Newtown. It was later downgraded to 2 Pinocchios. Now it's been further downgraded to 3 Pinocchios.
"...we had looked closely at this statistic back in January, in two columns, and found it wanting. It ultimately earned a rating of Two Pinocchios. PolitiFact in January also concluded there were serious problems with this particular statistic, giving it a rating of “half true.” And the Associated Press, in a March fact check, labeled this factoid “old and surely very tired.”"
"There are two key problems with the president’s use of this statistic: The numbers are about two decades old, yet he acts as if they are fresh, and he refers to “purchases” or “sales” when in fact the original report concerned “gun acquisitions” and “transactions.” Those are much broader categories of data."
"This study was based on data collected from a survey in 1994, the same year that the Brady Act requirements for background checks came into effect. In fact, the questions concerned purchases dating as far back as 1991, and the Brady Act went into effect in early 1994 — meaning that some, if not many, of the guns were bought in a pre-Brady environment." This is a HUGE factor in data analysis! They have apples and oranges in the same dataset.
"the survey sample was just 251 people"
"when asked whether the respondent bought from a licensed firearms dealer, the possible answers included “probably was/think so” and “probably not,” leaving open the possibility the purchaser was mistaken. (The “probably not” answers were counted as “no.”)
When all of the “yes” and “probably was” answers were added together, that left 35.7 percent of respondents indicating they did not receive the gun from a licensed firearms dealer. Rounding up gets you to 40 percent, although as we noted before, the survey sample is so small it could also be rounded down to 30 percent."
So there was uncertainty even at the root source of the data with "probably" answers. Then even with a margin of error of +/- 6%, gun control advocates take the high number and round up to the convenient 40% number.
"when gifts, inheritances and prizes are added in, then the number shrinks to 26.4 percent"
"...the Senate bill that would expand background checks — supported by the White House — specifically makes an exception for “a bona fide gift between immediate family members, including spouses, parents, children, siblings” as well as “the death of another person for whom the unlicensed transferor is an executor or administrator of an estate or a trustee of a trust created in a will."
"...in January we asked Ludwig to rerun the data, just looking at guns purchased in the secondary market. The result, depending on the definition, was 14 percent to 22 percent." HALF the number being spread by gun control advocates - using the same data as re-analyzed by the original author of the study!
"Cook and Ludwig wrote “we don’t know the current percentage — nor does anyone else.” "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-continued-use-of-the-claim-that-40-percent-of-gun-sales-lack-background-checks/2013/04/01/002e06ce-9b0f-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_blog.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/03/obama-criticized-for-using-dated-disputed-gun-stat-to-sell-background-checks/
Here are several other sources that discredit or at least acknowledge the inaccuracy of the oft-used 40% claim:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-stale-claim-that-40-percent-of-gun-sales-lack-background-checks/2013/01/20/e42ec050-629a-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_blog.html
"Even in its heyday, the statistic wasn't the kind you could count on.
A finding that 30 percent to 40 percent of guns changed hands outside the background-check system was, at best, a rough guide post in the murky gun-ownership universe.
At least it was fresh.
Now it's old and surely very tired. But President Barack Obama, some Democratic lawmakers, a coalition of mayors and others arguing for expanded background checks won't let that statistic rest in peace.
To hear them talk, you'd think it was born yesterday, rather than 20 years ago.""OBAMA, on Jan. 16: "It's time for Congress to require a universal background check for anyone trying to buy a gun. The law already requires licensed gun dealers to run 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."
MAYORS AGAINST ILLEGAL GUNS, a coalition favoring tighter gun controls, on Tuesday: "Around 40 percent of U.S. gun transfers are conducted by unlicensed 'private sellers' who are not required to conduct a federal check, and who often do business at gun shows and on the Internet."
NEW YORK MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, Dec. 17: "Congress should pass the Fix Gun Checks Act, which would close the 'private sale loophole' that allows more than 40 percent of gun sales to go through without a background check."
REP. DAVID CICILLINE, D-R.I., Jan. 26: "More than 40 percent of sales nationally are made without background checks."
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, Jan. 17: "Because of the lack of the ability of federal agencies to be able to even keep records, we can't say with absolute certainty what I'm about to say is correct. But the consensus is about 40 percent of the people who buy guns today do so outside the ... background check system." "http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/25/michael-bloomberg/mayor-michael-bloomberg-says-40-percent-guns-are-s/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jan/30/kirsten-gillibrand/gillibrand-says-40-percent-guns-sold-today-escape-/
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Related blogs:
http://us2ndamendment.blogspot.com/2013/06/gun-control-advocates-suffer-pinocchios.html
Firearms Blog Collections
Violent Crime & Firearms Background Checks
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