Pro-gun article

[RedskinRat]

Brady Law Has Done Little To Keep Guns Out Of Criminals' Hands - IBD

The description by the Capitol newspaper The Hill was typical: "The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which took effect 20 years ago Friday, has blocked more than 2 million firearm sales, preventing 'countless' killings and other crimes, gun control advocates said at an event to mark the anniversary ... ."

On Friday, the Brady Campaign claimed that half those blocked from purchasing a gun — over 1 million — were felons.

Impressive numbers. But, alas, both are gross exaggerations.

In reality, the "Brady Checks" are quite ineffective in stopping criminals from getting guns. There are actually very few hard-core criminals that are stupid enough to even try to buy a gun from a dealer that does a background check.

The media don't understand what they are reporting. Getting denied by a Brady check is not the same thing as saying that the person is a prohibited person. The correct terminology here is that there have been more than 2 million "initial denials."

Take the numbers from 2010, the last year the full National Instant Criminal Background Check System report was produced (the Obama administration has stopped releasing this detailed report).

So let us look at these numbers, a relatively typical year. Out of the 76,142 initial denials in the federal system only 44 individuals were prosecuted and only 13 were convicted of illegally trying to purchase a gun when they were prohibited from doing so.

As if that wasn't bad enough, those convicted were hardly what one would call dangerous criminals — usually people with relatively trivial records from years earlier that didn't realize their offense was covered.