More than 7,000 people who should have been barred from buying guns were able to buy them anyway in 2002 and 2003, according to a Justice Department review released Monday.
What it's talking about are purchases that wait for a background check, and then are automatically completed when the background check isn't completed in three days. Approximately 7000 such purchases, when the background checks were finally completed, would have been denied had the checks been completed in time.
Now here's an interesting paragraph:
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives retrieved the weapon in 97 percent of those cases. That sometimes took a year or longer, ample time for an illegal buyer to use the gun to commit a crime.
Read it carefully and see if you can spot the logical flaw. Never mind, the author of the article helpfully points it out:
“We were also told that ‘bad guys’ generally do not purchase their firearms through legitimate dealers” but instead do so illegally, at unregulated gun shows or flea markets or through other means, the review said.
Yep. That's entirely correct. Let's say you know that you are prohibited from buying a gun. Are you going to go to a dealer knowing that attempting to buy a gun is likely to fail? As I recall, a convicted felon commits a crime when he attempts to buy a gun so, not only will it probably fail, but you may get arrested in the bargain.
This one just slays me:
Fine said in the study, however, that “because someone has committed only nonviolent crimes in the past does not mean that he or she is not capable of using the illegally obtained firearm to commit a violent crime.”
This is what is known as "presumption of guilt." Almost every person is capable of using a firearm to commit a violent crime. We all have the physical capability to do so, except for those people who are paralyzed or otherwise unable to wield a firearm. There's a big difference, however, between capability and intent. There's an anecdote that's been around for a while that illustrates this point. It never actually happened, but it's still instructive:
This is an extract of an National Public Radio (NPR) interview between a female broadcaster and US Army Lieutenant General Reinwald about sponsoring a Boy Scout Troop on his military installation.
Interviewer: "So, LTG Reinwald, what are you going to do with these young boys on their adventure holiday?"
LTG Reinwald: "We're going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery, and shooting."
Interviewer: "Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it?"
LTG Reinwald: "I don't see why, they'll be properly supervised on the range."
Interviewer: "Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children?"
LTG Reinwald: "I don't see how, we will be teaching them proper range discipline before they even touch a firearm."
Interviewer: "But you're equipping them to become violent killers."
LTG Reinwald: "Well, you're equipped to be a prostitute, but you're not one, are you?"
End of the interview
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