Well, I feel vindicated (not that I needed WP)
I have been on top of this in other forums:
17 Jan 2013:
http://www.gunrightsmedia.com/showt...ers-no-check&p=5408337&viewfull=1#post5408337
25 Jan 2013:
http://www.gunrightsmedia.com/showt...ers-no-check&p=5408965&viewfull=1#post5408965
Beware of Politicians Quoting Statistics...
...Or,
Q: How do you tell when a politician is lying?
A: His lips are moving and statistics are coming out.
Recent hearing exchange:
LOBUCHAR: And is it true that about 40 percent of gun sales take place at the gun shows?
J. JOHNSON: Statistics reveal that 40 percent of gun sales take place at gun shows and other non-licensed dealer sales arrangements. Nearly 6.6 million guns through that process a year. . . .
The 40% stat has been repeated by
Los Angeles Times quoting US VP Joe Biden,
Washington Post quoting Brady Campaign,
Time quoting "Gun-control advocates",
New York Daily News quoting NY Gov Andrew Cuomo,
And the 40% has been used in op-eds by Julie Roginsky at
Fox News (40% of guns are not purchased though licensed dealers who do bacckground checks) and Dean Obeidallah at
Huffington Post ("...40% of the guns legally sold are to people who have had no background check...").
"40% gun sales", "40% gun buyers", "40% gunshow sales".
The survey being cited was the 1994 National Survey on the Private Ownership and Use of Firearms, which was conducted by the survey firm of Chilton for the Police Foundation on a grant from the US Department of Justice.
251 people in the survey sample reported "acquiring" guns during 1993-1994.
This is "firearms acquisitions" not "gun sales". In fact, when the NSPOF asked the 251 sample
What Best Describes
HOW You Obtained Your Gun?
73% Bought it
19% Received it as a gift
3% Traded something for it
5% Inherited it
Where did these folks "acquire" their guns?
60% from stores (gun shops, pawnshops, sportings goods counter at a department store, etc.), which after 1968 would have to hold a Federal Firearms License and from Nov 1998 were required to run a background check on buyers.
From What Source Did You Obtain This Gun?
43% Gun store
6% Pawnshop
11% Other store
"Stores" 60%
4% Gun show or flea market
3% Through the mail*
17% Member of the family
12% Friend or acquaintance
4% Other
"Not stores" 40%
73% acquired a gun by purchase ("bought").
60% cited the source as "stores".
Which implies 13% bought guns from private individuals at gunshows, flea markets, friends, acquantainces, family or "Other" implying either stranger or source not given.
27% were not a gun buyer acquiring a gun from a gun seller:
19% Received it as a gift
3% Traded something for it
5% Inherited it
The 40% "non-licensed dealer sales arrangements" include 27% gifts, trades or inheritance among family members, friends, acquaitances. BTW "unlicensed dealer" or "dealing in firearms without a federal firearms license" is a federal crime. However, ATF says giving firearms as gifts to family members or occassionally buying, selling or trading guns among family, friends or acquaintances is legal under the 1968 GCA and does not make you eligible to get a FFL.
THE BIG LIE:
40 percent of gun sales take place at the gun shows and no background checks are run.
THE TRUTH:
The survey that gave 40% of gun "acquisitions" as non-store "acquisitions" did not say 40% of gun "sellers" were at gun shows and did not run background checks on gun "buyers".
The biggest source of non-store gun acquisitions was 19% gifts from family or friends who did not run background checks on the family or friend recepients.
Maybe 13% of gun acquisitions are private sales among family, friends, acquintances or strangers, where the private seller does not run background checks on the buyer.
Gun shows
plus flea markets were the source of firearms for 4% all gun acquistions. Most vendors at gunshows I have attended were dealers and they did run NICS background checks on me. The claim that 40 percent of gun sales take place at the gun shows without background checks is an example of Joseph Goebbel's Big Lie propaganda technique.
AGAIN the 40% lie:
Piers Morgan interviewing Michael Moore 19 Mar 2013:
MORGAN: I just find it completely offensive. The idea that you would want to have a continued loophole where 40 percent, minimum, of all guns sold in America are sold at gun shows where nobody can check anything. You can buy an AR-15 tomorrow at a gun show. Nobody knows. This is the stuff of madness.
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*NOTE on 1993-1994 mail order: the 1968 Gun Control Act outlawed mailorder gun sales. According to NIJ report authors Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig, mail orders of modern guns are shipped to local gun shops, where the sale is completed by a licensed dealer with Form 4473 (and since Nov 1998) with a background check. Only antique or replica muzzleloaders are directly sold by mail.