An article published by the Washington Examiner should serve as a reminder for anybody campaigning to further restrict gun ownership in the United States: All these guns you don’t want people to have—they’ve already got them.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the number of August background checks “recorded in” the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) spiked 15.5 percent over that from August 2018. Part of the reason, the newspaper suggested, was because Americans want guns for personal protection, and they’re worried about congressional Democrats pushing more gun control measures into law.
This is fueled by the recent mass shootings in California, Texas and Ohio; incidents fully exploited by the gun prohibition lobby and Capitol Hill anti-gunners, according to an Op-Ed in USA Today bylined by Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
The Washington Examiner reported that the NICS raw number of initiated background checks for August was a whopping 2,341,363, which includes checks for concealed carry permit applications and “rechecks.” NSSF subtracts this number to come up with what it calls the “NSSF-adjusted” figure of 1,113,535 checks for August that relate closer to the number of firearms transactions that occurred.
As we’ve noted in the past, the FBI publishes monthly updates on NICS checks and adds this caveat: “These statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS. They do not represent the number of firearms sold. Based on varying state laws and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation cannot be made between a firearm background check and a firearm sale.”
Here’s some other interesting data not mentioned by the Washington Examiner. The first full year that the NICS system was online (1999), there were 9,138,123 background checks. Last year (2018), there were 26,181,938 background checks logged by NICS. That’s a very rough 250-280 percent increase over the course of 19 years, and that’s a lot of gun purchases no matter who does the counting, or how.
As of July, this year has seen 15,890,359 NCIS background checks. Even if only two-thirds of these involved actual firearm purchases, it still translates to more than 10 million gun sales, or at least firearm transfers (some states with so-called “universal background checks” require a NICS check for gun loans or gifts).
While everyone in the firearms community, from gun owners/buyers to retailers, distributors and manufacturers have figured it out, the gun prohibition crowd hasn’t. Every time anti-gunners start pushing for more gun control laws, gun sales go up. Tell a citizen he or she won’t be able to have something and they’re going to go out and get it now before supplies run out.
As noted by the Washington Examiner when reporting background check numbers and gun sales over the past several weeks, “Analysts said that it might be the start of a 2016-style buying binge. Then, calls by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton for gun control and an assault weapon ban led to the highest yearly sales and background checks ever.”
Take It From USCCA, Pew Research
The United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) recently tried to bring some perspective to the violent news of late summer when it quoted a Pew Research observation.
“Violent crime in the U.S. has fallen sharply over the past quarter century,” Pew reported. “The two most commonly cited sources of crime statistics in the U.S. both show a substantial decline in the violent crime rate since it peaked in the early 1990s.”
Insider Online checked a Pew Research article from January that alluded to FBI crime report data.
“Using the FBI numbers, the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2017,” the Pew article noted. “Using the BJS (Bureau of Justice Statistics) data, the rate fell 74% during that span.”
This was during the same period that gun purchases and concealed carry numbers soared. According to a USCCA blog, “Meanwhile, there has also been an explosion in the number of concealed carry permit holders in the United States, with a noticeable jump from 2.7 million in 1999 to 14.5 million in 2016. In fact, the rates of Americans qualifying for permits has increased from 240,000 annually just a decade ago to 1.83 million in 2018 alone. And that figure doesn’t account for individuals who live in states without permit requirements.”
Should AR15s Be More Regulated?
The Washington Times recently did a poll on modern semi-auto sporting rifles, wrongly characterized as “assault rifles” and “weapons of war” by gun control proponents, some of whom are currently running for president.
The newspaper asked a simple question online: “Should AR-15s be more heavily regulated?”
The gun control crowd probably didn’t see this coming. Only 3 percent of the respondents said such firearms should be more strictly regulated. Almost 97 percent said “No,” such guns need no further regulation. A paltry 191 of the responses, less than 1 percent, weren’t sure.
New Ruger Security-9 Variation
Ruger recently announced a new variation of its Security-9 semi-auto pistol, and it’s likely to find plenty of appeal among people looking for a compact 9mm pistol with a factory-mounted laser sight.
With a 10+1 capacity, the compact Security-9 is now available with a Viridian E-Series red laser, mounted ahead of the trigger guard. The pistol comes with a drift-adjustable rear sight on a through-hardened steel slide and an alloy steel barrel measuring 3.42 inches, cut with six grooves on a 1:10-inch right-hand twist. Its glass-filled nylon grip frame is textured for a firm hold, weighing 22.4 ounces.
The Viridian laser weighs a hair over 0.5-ounce with battery installed, and it is activated with a push button accessible to either hand.
The pistol features a Secure Action that is also used in the LCP II, a smooth trigger stroke with quick, positive reset, and an internal Secure Action hammer. The pistol ships with two alloy steel magazines.
Overall length is 6.52 inches and has an MSRP of $439.
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