Nice summary of Firearms facts and their sources
A "nice read" on many statistics regarding firearms, gun control, etc.
I'm not so interested in the "specific" numbers presented, but rather the change in trends (did bans/laws etc. cause a change to increases/decreases) and were they "significant" changes.
I'd also have liked to have seen the data gathered and reported from the same time frames, rather than "in 2009 this is what happened to 'Topic A' " in 1994 this is what happened to 'Topic B' "
http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp
I find the following excerpts upsetting :
Quote:
As of 2010, federal law does not prohibit members of terrorist organizations from purchasing or possessing firearms or explosives. Between February 2004 and February 2010, 1,225 firearm and three explosives background checks for people on terrorist watch lists were processed through the federal background check system. Of these, 91% of the firearm transactions and 100% of the explosives transactions were allowed
If you are on a "watch" list , I guess that just means the feds "watch" you blow stuff up, eh?
Quote:
Using fake driver's licenses bearing fictitious names, investigators with the Government Accountability Office had a 100% success rate buying firearms in five states that met the minimum requirements of the federal background check system. A 2001 report of this investigation states that the federal background check system "does not positively identify purchasers of firearms," and thus, people using fake IDs are not flagged by the system.
...and what is it that the upcoming legislation is doing to address things like this? (Do you detect any rhetoric in my comment ?)
Quote:
As of 2002, 15 states automatically restore the firearm rights of convicts upon their release from prison or completion of parole, and 6 other states automatically restore the firearm rights of juvenile convicts upon their release from prison or completion of parole. In 2004, the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice wrote that this system
Quote:
may result in a paradoxical situation in which someone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence is permanently barred from owning a firearm, while someone who kills his spouse has his firearm rights restored after serving his sentence.
Hmmmm, that seems perfectly reasonable, right ?
