Democrats want ATF information on gun violence
House Democrats are calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to update a report it last published nearly two decades ago about gun violence to help inform public policy on the issue.
The request, in the form of a letter to ATF Director Thomas Brandon, comes after Democrats staged a sit-in on the House floor this summer to bring attention to what they see as congressional inaction in response to mass shootings.
The ATF last published a report titled Following the Gun, which reviewed how criminals obtain firearms, in 2000. The lawmakers said that a new report with more recent statistics would provide the public with more understanding of how gun violence occurs in America.
They cite the reason is the bill that bans using federal money to promote gun control. I rather thought that bill was aimed at the CDC because of their sketchy gun control studies that always ended with “we need more money for more research”.
October 6th, 2016 at 8:01 pm
I always point people to this article when the whole “ZOMG, the CDC can’t do ANY research on gunz!” red herring comes up:
http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/15/why-congress-cut-the-cdcs-gun-research-budget/
In short, they can and do; what they can’t do is politicize the studies. That they use this as an excuse not to do some research kind of underlies their political leanings.
October 11th, 2016 at 3:10 pm
Chicago just did such a study, came up the same as the old BOP study.
Criminals don’t steal guns to use in their own crimes, they steal them to use as currency. Criminals primarily carry guns for self-defense (mutatis mutandis) from other criminals. Criminals often “share” guns and stash them to avoid getting caught with them.
Non-prohibited criminals can buy them, Prohibited criminals get them from people who either can pass background checks (friends, family, associates) or from other prohibited persons who have such connections, or from criminals who steal them, often in large lots from gun stores or during transport.
Those non-prohibited persons are already knowingly willing to break the law, so additional laws can have no rational increased deterrent effect (especially since slam-dunk straw buyer and felon in possession cases aren’t being prosecuted now). Criminals are criminals and also won’t be deterred.
What doesn’t happen, then or now statistically, is a prohibited person buying from a non-prohibited person who does not know their prohibited status.