Source and Use of Firearms Involved in Crimes: Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016

[melm00se]

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/suficspi16.pdf

tables 5 and 6 are interesting

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

1. Background checks are working

Criminals are being forced to get guns from non-retail sources.

[gejohnston]

2. Actually, they never did

It is an update of the Wright Rossi study in the 1980s that got the same result. Probably has more to do with the 4473 itself and that street guns are cheaper than going to an FFL. You can get a "slightly used" Glock for fifty bucks.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

3. On the contrary, a BGC gives those of us who...

...want to make sure we don't transfer a gun to a criminal, the ability to be rather sure that we aren't. Of course, that probably doesn't have any real affect on limiting crime.

We're saying the same thing in that someone who has decided on a path of crime and picked a gun as a weapon to use, probably won't be doing his gun shopping at a retail store.

I don't see most BGS as being evil but they aren't the answer to lowering crime and cutting the murder rate.

[gejohnston]

4. In principle, neither do I,

but I would prefer to see money spent on fixing the root causes of gang violence, fixing urban infrastructure and maybe something like the microloans to encourage honest businesses. Of course, we would save a fortune by ending the war on drugs.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. microloans would be a great resource to the entire spectrum of communities in the world

Of course getting those with the most to lend to 'teach a man to fish' would be a hard sell.

The war on drugs is accurately characterized by the quote from Rambo on war: "Old men start it, young men fight it, nobody wins, everybody in the middle dies... and nobody tells the truth!"