The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) website has a new feature--"studies" promoted by the Brady Campaign's "Research Center" (I wonder if, in the Brady's research, they have yet found The People). Let's take a look, shall we?
The very first article is by old friend Dr. Garen Wintemute (Hero of Medicine). The article is titled "Disproportionate sales of crime guns among licensed handgun retailers in the United States: a case–control study," and I sure as hell ain't gonna pay to read it--but there's enough just in the summary on which to base some interesting conclusions.
What Does It Say? This study extends and improves on prior research on the risk factors for disproportionate sales of crime guns by gun dealers. The study is based on records of California handgun sales, crime gun trace data, and site visits to licensed dealers. The time period covered is 1998 to 2003. Risk factors, measured at the retailer level and describing the retailers or their purchasers include: status as a pawnbroker, denied sales, sales of inexpensive handguns, multiple-gun sales, urban location, and a short elapsed time from sale to recovery for traced guns.Wait a sec: ". . . the percentage of denied sales is a strong risk factor for selling a disproportionate number of crime guns . . . " Are we to understand that a lot of gun sales to "prohibited persons" not happening is "a strong risk factor" for selling a lot of "crime guns"? What's the solution--stop doing background checks? I like that idea, but I don't think that's what Wintemute, the Brady Bunch, or ICHV have in mind. I guess they would want us to believe that the dealer's participation in, and compliance with, the NICS system should be used against him, if he gets a lot of sales denied.
How Can I Use It? One of the overall points of the study is that most of the risk factors that help identify retailers with disproportionate crime gun sales are already available in existing records. In particular, the percentage of denied sales is a strong risk factor for selling a disproportionate number of crime guns, and this information is already available at the federal level. Advocates may want to try to obtain this data directly themselves via a FOIA request or work with their local law enforcement to do so.
Stumble it!
2 comments:
The "logic" there makes my head hurt.
If a store was illegally selling firearms to prohibited persons; would there be a high level of denied sales?
I think I see where this is going:
1. If a store is denying many sales, they must be getting a lot of criminals trying to buy guns- it should be closed down.
2. If a store is NOT denying many sales, they must be selling a lot of guns to criminals illegally - it should be shut down.
When you look at it, they really are "gun banners" no matter what they say.
You seem to have summed it up nicely, Bob.
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