Online Gun Sales
There is no record for how many guns are sold each year in the U. S., though it is possible to track how many NICS (National Institute Criminal Background Check System) applications for the purchase of a firearm have been processed, but as for data regarding the number of guns sold with or without background checks, it simply does not exist.
How Online Gun Sales Stats Were Found
For 2012 there were 16,808,538 applications submitted by the end of November. Records have been kept since 1998 allowing some facts to be observed based on the data. Approximately 44% of all applications are for long guns such as rifles. Kentucky has the highest number of applications, while Rhode Island had the least among the lower 48 states.
There were 976,255 denials processed through the system for the 2012 data. Convicted offenders account for approximately 59% of all denials in the system.
Gun control advocates like to manipulate the facts. Of the 16 plus million applications processed by the NICS the exact number that proceeded to an actual purchase is not known, there is no accurate record of purchases, period. Any statement made of the number of guns sold in the U. S. can at best be an estimate. If stated as a fact you are viewing a direct attempt to manipulate the public.
Recently you hear a lot about the 40% who are buying privately and in online gun sales without a background check. This is a misleading statement based on a 19 year old study that was never an accurate reflection.
The 40% being quoted is completely false and shows just how manipulative gun control advocates are. The so called data they base their statements upon is like considering the data a preschooler would gather on the number of non-indigenous invasive species in a foreign country.
The frail basis of a claim for the 40% comes from a 1997 National Institute of Justice study by researchers Philip Cook of Duke University and Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago. This study examined data from a 1994 telephone survey on gun ownership taken months after the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 took effect. The Brady Act mandated background checks of individuals buying guns at gun shops.
In this survey 2,568 homes were surveyed with questions regarding gun ownership, including how many guns were in the house, what they were used for, how they were stored and where the owner obtained them.
Of the 2,568 households surveyed, only 251 people answered the question of where the owner obtained the gun. Of the approximate 10% who answered this question 35.7% reported obtaining their gun from someone other than a licensed dealer. This is the source of the infamous 40% and includes guns that were gifts, inherited or won whose source of purchase was unknown by the receiver.
Another problem with this survey is that it was taken in late 1994; months after the Brady Act went into effect. The questions asked were regarding gun purchases that had been made in the previous two years. This means some of the gun purchases occurred prior to the Brady Act going into effect.
The 40% statistic is outdated, inaccurate for the time then, and certainly not an accurate reflection of today’s firearm transactions without background checks.
There simply is no method of accurately assessing guns actually sold requiring a background check, much less tracking gun transactions without background checks.
Let’s be clear upon some other inaccurate claims by anti-gunners. Some states do require background checks be performed by individuals selling a firearm privately. Some individuals require a background check even if not required by their state, and it is federal law that online gun sales by online gun dealers require a background check by a FFL provider.
A citizen would be wise to investigate the facts before believing them. The American people have never been so mislead as is now occurring by elected officials as well as those activists with their own deceptive agenda’s that are dividing our nation.
