BY TRENTON WINFORD
tgwinford@bellsouth.net
On April 17, the U.S. Senate voted down an amendment to a bill that would have extended background checks on firearm purchases to close a supposed loophole with gun shows. The liberal outcry that followed filled the media for days.
As I read through the reactions, I noticed a few numbers and statistics that kept popping up, so I decided to look into each one.
For starters, proponents of the amendment, such as the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, repeatedly claimed that between 25 percent and 50 percent of sellers at a gun show are not federally licensed. Having never been to a gun show myself, I did not know whether or not that could be true. So, I followed the link to the study, only to find out that the study included all vendors at a gun show, not just vendors that were selling firearms.
This meant that vendors that were selling concessions, souvenirs or just ammo were counted as gun show vendors. When those were removed, fewer than 2 percent of the vendors actually selling firearms were unlicensed, usually individuals who were selling from a collection.
Another number that was consistently thrown about was that 90 percent of Americans favored the amendment. I never saw any source to those numbers, but I did find a public opinion survey that asked responders if they favored background checks in general. Ninety percent said they did favor background checks. However, the survey did not go any further than a general question.
While looking for public opinion surveys about the amendment specifically, I came across multiple surveys that tell a completely different story. When asked how they felt about the amendment not passing the Senate, only 47 percent of respondents were either disappointed or angry, according to the Pew Research Center.
Additionally, in a CNN poll conducted prior to the Senate vote, only 53 percent of respondents said that they favored stricter gun control laws. A Fox News poll, also conducted prior to the vote, asked respondents what they felt was most likely to reduce gun violence. Only 26 percent of respondents answered with stricter gun control laws.
Beyond the use of faulty numbers, though, quite a few of those angry about the outcome of the vote chose to use an emotional appeal, claiming that voting against the amendment was equivalent to a slap in the face of gun crime victims, such as the children and families affected by the Newtown shooting.
What is lacking with this argument is a causal link between the supposed loophole and the Newtown shooting that simply is not there. Fewer than 2 percent of individuals incarcerated for a firearm-related crime claim to have purchased their firearm at a gun show. Other surveys and studies, including a number conducted by the FBI and ATF, have found the link between gun shows and gun crimes to be minimal or statistically irrelevant.
Unfortunately, those findings do not stand in the way of those in favor of stricter gun control. Personally, I wish would they focus their time more on curbing gun violence through means that have been proven effective, such as educational and preventive means, rather than spending their time making it difficult to legally obtain a firearm.
After all, two things hold true. First, new laws do not deter those who break laws. Second, guns do not kill people, the person pulling the trigger does.
Trenton Winford is a junior public policy leadership major from Madison.
