Mapping How Guns Get Around Despite Background Check Laws

[thelakelander]

A new study shows 40 percent of gun owners get them without a background check—even in states that require them.

BRENTIN MOCK

Gun-control advocates often cite that 40 percent of guns have been obtained by people without a background check. That stat is often attacked, however, for being produced from a small sample size of survey respondents (251) and published in an aged report from the early 1990s. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) doesn't do the best job of tracking gun figures like this, but Harvard University researchers have.

In an interview with The Trace, Harvard Injury Control Research Center director Deborah Azrael confirmed the 40 percent figure in terms of people who've acquired guns without a background check. This number is based on her team's survey of more than 2,000 gun owners for a forthcoming study. Some preliminary data released to The Trace provides context for this new 40 percent stat:

Roughly 30 percent: Gun owners who did not purchase their most recent gun, instead obtaining it through a transfer (a gift, an inheritance, a swap between friends).
Roughly 70 percent: Gun owners who purchased their most recent gun.
Among the gun buyers, about 34 percent did not go through a background check.
Among the gun owners who got their firearms through a transfer, roughly two-thirds did not go through a background check.
There are only 10 states that require background checks for all gun purchases.

Full article: http://www.citylab.com/crime/2015/10/mapping-how-guns-get-around-despite-background-checks/411946/