VOX: Universal Background Checks Ineffective

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

The Democrats’ current crop of gun control bills includes universal background checks in order to purchase a gun. But the liberal news site Vox recently cited research showing background checks don’t stop gun violence.

Currently, federal law requires background checks on buyers purchasing guns from a federally licensed gun dealer. But the “gun show loophole” allows private sellers to sell guns to buyers without a background check. The Democrats’ proposed bill, HR8, would close that loophole. It would expand regular federal background checks to “universal background checks.” It allows very few exceptions. One is loaning a rifle to a friend for hunting.

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The RAND Corporation found that “the research just on closing the background check loopholes, to make the system more universal, was ‘inconclusive’ when it came to firearm homicides.” And it found only “limited to moderate” evidence that background checks reduced violent crime.

The latter may be in part because background checks are not always carried out as required. Plenty of mass shooters in recent years obtained their firearms illegally — they did not get them legally through the gun show loophole. A 2016 DOJ survey of inmates serving time for an offense with a gun found that they had almost all obtained their guns illegally. Under one percent obtained their firearm legally from a gun show.

Read the rest of the article: https://stream.org/liberal-vox-admits-universal-background-checks-wont-solve-gun-violence/