Gun Lies!

 Reblogged from Democratic Republic

Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. That has been the quote of the American gun owner for as long as I can remember. There is a good reason it has stuck, it’s true and to the point. But don’t let this be your only point.

I have looked into the ATF, FBI, and the DOJ statistics on gun crime and I keep coming across two things. The majority, around 90%, of crimes are committed with illegally obtained guns and the majority are committed by repeat offenders, around 80%.

If you have never purchased a gun from a FFL dealer or you have never researched the complete process of purchasing a firearm, then you’re uninformed and your opinion is biased. Every state is required to perform a firearm background check to include a search of the National Instant Check System (NICS), which identifies anyone barred from owning a gun and about half of the states require additional checks or measures.

The issue is with illegally obtained weapons. The answer is not to make them all illegal.

Individuals need to be informed before they go on a rant.

I read a blog by a biased or uninformed blogger that was trying to point out things more difficult than owning a gun. One of the main points of the blogger was that you don’t have to give your Social Security Number to purchase a gun. In fact, the current ATF form 4473 has a block for your SSN and states ‘Optional, but will help prevent misidentification’. Did this blogger actually think that the NCIS would fail to identify a person and still approve their application to get a gun?

If you don’t give your SSN and they cannot identify you, the application will be rejected. I have seen this first hand and there are some interesting statistics about it. Since 2005, there have been around 70,000 denials per year and almost 1,000,000 denials since 1998. There is something we have to consider, not all of those denied were criminals and were probably denied because of the system's inability to identify the person. If the NCIS cannot identify you, they will deny your application.

Where did this blogger get their information or lack thereof? A quick Google search gave me a possible answer, Wikipedia. I don’t know if we have a Wiki Warrior that did not research any further than Wikipedia or someone who is biased enough not to tell the whole truth. You cannot base your opinion on Wiki; it is a source of information, but not always a reliable one. Just like Wiki, don’t get caught up in one news source. All the mainstream news sources have some bias.

It's uninformed or biased communications like these that only confuse people. They sway people to their way of thinking through incorrect information and misrepresentations.

Don’t arm yourself with witty quotes when knowledge and facts will have more effect. 

If there is only one point you take from this, I hope it’s ‘Don’t believe everything you read!’