That avuncular looking gentleman pictured above is Lynn Kartchner. Like all the other FFL gun dealers in Arizona, he may appear innocent and harmless, but the truth is he's a dealer in death, and I'll tell you why.According to a recent article in the Arizona Republic nearly 125,000 people went through federal background checks in the first six months of 2011 in order to obtain a concealed weapon.
That puts the state on track to exceed the record of more than 215,000 background checks in 2009.
First of all let's set one thing straight. Those numbers of background checks, which the pro-gun crowd like to use as synonymous with "new gun owners," are misleading. Most of those background checks are not performed on first-time buyers. Most of those people already own one or more guns. This is an example of the mendacious spin-job the pro-gun crowd is continually trying to pull. They attempt to normalize guns by inflating the numbers of gun owners. Studies have shown that the actual number of households with guns has diminished.
Back to the original premise, "dealers in death," it works like this. In Arizona, hundreds of thousands of guns per year are being sold to folks who passed the background check, so far so good. But from there it's like a free-for-all. Since no licensing of gun owners is allowed or registration of guns to those licensed gun owners, there are absolutely no controls beyond the initial sale. Those folks who bought guns legally in Arizona, can do anything they want with them with no accountability at all.
This is how the majority of guns used by criminals get there. Straw purchases, gun traffickers with clean records, and private sales account for most. Theft accounts for the rest.
What's your opinion? Do you think Arizona is vying to take the crown back from Florida? They certainly compete in the gun part, and they've got a pretty outrageous governor, but without the prescription drug business I;m afraid Florida remains The Most Baneful State.
What do you think? Please leave a comment.
"This is an example of the mendacious spin-job the pro-gun crowd is continually trying to pull. They attempt to normalize guns by inflating the numbers of gun owners. Studies have shown that the actual number of households with guns has diminished."
ReplyDeleteThat is funny. You accuse the pro-gun crowd of a spin job trying to inflate the number of gunowners. Yet you misquote the "studies" with the exact opposite in mind. You are spinning it to deflate the number of gun owners.
Read your "studies" again. They say that the percentage of homes that own guns has diminished, not the number of gun owners. With the rate of population growth over that 30 year period, the number of gun owning homes has actually increased, not decreased. However, as a percentage of the population, the number of homes has decreased. In other words the percentage of gun owners has decreased in relation to the total population but there are still more gun owners than there were three decades ago.
"Straw purchases, gun traffickers with clean records, and private sales account for most. Theft accounts for the rest."
ReplyDeleteDo you have a cite for this statistic or are you just Jadin' it?
FWM, Thanks for such a vivid example of the spinning you guys do with stats. You flip back and forth between "rate" and "total numbers" as it fits your belief.
ReplyDeleteGiven that, no I do not have a link for my belief about this.
"Straw purchases, gun traffickers with clean records, and private sales account for most. Theft accounts for the rest."
Common sense and honesty should suffice.
Common sense and honesty would say that if a hundred thousand or so more illegal guns a year where showing up on the street that at least ten percent of them would actually get used in a crime and that Arizona would have ten thousand more gun crimes every year because of it. But wait. Gun crime went down in Az last year Oh snap. That must mean your supposition is as full of shit as the rest of the stuff you say.
ReplyDeleteCommon sense and honesty would say that if a hundred thousand or so more illegal guns a year where showing up on the street that at least ten percent of them would actually get used in a crime and that Arizona would have ten thousand more gun crimes every year because of it.
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily, the guns could be sold into other jurisdictions with tighter gun control laws (e.g., California and Mexico).
The real point I want to make here is that firearms statistics in the US are sadly wanting.
Especially those regarding the illegal firearms trade.
P, that might be true if Arizona were an island fortress. As we know some of the guns end up in Mexico and others migrate into other States.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a controlled expirement.