Real Data on Illegal Gun Sales

[SecularMotion]

A recent survey of gun dealers on illegal transactions yields new information on how criminals obtain guns.

Conducted by Garen J. Wintemute, a renowned gun researcher , public health expert and professor of emergency medicine at the School of Medicine at the University of California at Davis, the survey canvassed 1,601 federally licensed dealers and pawnbrokers in 43 states on how often attempts were made to acquire guns illegally and how sellers reacted to such attempts. Before the survey, there were almost no answers to those questions.

Among the findings, 67 percent of sellers had experienced at least one attempted straw purchase in the year before the survey, for an estimated 2,051 attempts, while 43 percent had experienced at least one attempted undocumented purchase. Extrapolated to nearly 10,000 similar sellers nationwide, that works out to 33,800 attempted straw purchases a year, and 37,000 attempted undocumented purchases. Firearm theft was also common.

The respondents said they refused the sales when they detected illegal purchase attempts, but most did not subsequently alert law enforcement or other retailers.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/finally-real-data-on-illegal-gun-sales/

[friendly_iconoclast]

1. "...but most did not subsequently alert law enforcement or other retailers"

Why should they bother to do so? The FBI knows when a disqualified person attempts
to buy a gun from a dealer (since they run the NICS system), but these DQ'd
attempted buyers are rarely charged.

[IronGate]

2. And most to the DQ's are cleared up in a day to two

and the sale is allowed to go forward.

[friendly_iconoclast]

3. I meant the ones rightly DQ'd for cause. The Feds almost never pursue those

[IronGate]

4. Very true. nt.

[Eleanors38]

5. All those "attempts." Sounds like NICS is working.

The feds get to see the show. Ask THEM why there is no follow-up investigation.