By John Lott Jr. - 3/3/2014
Last Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the so-called Brady Law, a federal gun control in honor of James Brady, Ronald Reagan's former press secretary who was wounded in John Hinckley's assassination attempt.
Since it requires background checks on all guns purchased from federally licensed firearms dealers, gun control advocates celebrated the law's purported effectiveness.
The description by the Capitol newspaper The Hill was typical: "The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which took effect 20 years ago Friday, has blocked more than 2 million firearm sales, preventing 'countless' killings and other crimes, gun control advocates said at an event to mark the anniversary ... ."
On Friday, the Brady Campaign claimed that half those blocked from purchasing a gun — over 1 million — were felons.
Impressive numbers. But, alas, both are gross exaggerations.
In reality, the "Brady Checks" are quite ineffective in stopping criminals from getting guns. There are actually very few hard-core criminals that are stupid enough to even try to buy a gun from a dealer that does a background check.
The media don't understand what they are reporting. Getting denied by a Brady check is not the same thing as saying that the person is a prohibited person. The correct terminology here is that there have been more than 2 million "initial denials."
Take the numbers from 2010, the last year the full National Instant Criminal Background Check System report was produced (the Obama administration has stopped releasing this detailed report).
So let us look at these numbers, a relatively typical year. Out of the 76,142 initial denials in the federal system only 44 individuals were prosecuted and only 13 were convicted of illegally trying to purchase a gun when they were prohibited from doing so.
As if that wasn't bad enough, those convicted were hardly what one would call dangerous criminals — usually people with relatively trivial records from years earlier that didn't realize their offense was covered.
While some have attacked Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama for not enforcing the law, none of those presidents would have failed to prosecute a felon who tried to buy a gun. They would have prosecuted, and prosecuted successfully.
The real problem is denying someone a purchase because they have a similar name to a felon, but that is not the same thing as saying that the person being denied is a felon.
We have seen this same problem more prominently with the "No Fly" list. There were five times that the late Sen. Ted Kennedy was "initially denied" flights because his name was on the anti-terror "no fly" list.
Since it requires background checks on all guns purchased from federally licensed firearms dealers, gun control advocates celebrated the law's purported effectiveness.
The description by the Capitol newspaper The Hill was typical: "The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which took effect 20 years ago Friday, has blocked more than 2 million firearm sales, preventing 'countless' killings and other crimes, gun control advocates said at an event to mark the anniversary ... ."
On Friday, the Brady Campaign claimed that half those blocked from purchasing a gun — over 1 million — were felons.
Impressive numbers. But, alas, both are gross exaggerations.
In reality, the "Brady Checks" are quite ineffective in stopping criminals from getting guns. There are actually very few hard-core criminals that are stupid enough to even try to buy a gun from a dealer that does a background check.
The media don't understand what they are reporting. Getting denied by a Brady check is not the same thing as saying that the person is a prohibited person. The correct terminology here is that there have been more than 2 million "initial denials."
Take the numbers from 2010, the last year the full National Instant Criminal Background Check System report was produced (the Obama administration has stopped releasing this detailed report).
So let us look at these numbers, a relatively typical year. Out of the 76,142 initial denials in the federal system only 44 individuals were prosecuted and only 13 were convicted of illegally trying to purchase a gun when they were prohibited from doing so.
As if that wasn't bad enough, those convicted were hardly what one would call dangerous criminals — usually people with relatively trivial records from years earlier that didn't realize their offense was covered.
While some have attacked Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama for not enforcing the law, none of those presidents would have failed to prosecute a felon who tried to buy a gun. They would have prosecuted, and prosecuted successfully.
The real problem is denying someone a purchase because they have a similar name to a felon, but that is not the same thing as saying that the person being denied is a felon.
We have seen this same problem more prominently with the "No Fly" list. There were five times that the late Sen. Ted Kennedy was "initially denied" flights because his name was on the anti-terror "no fly" list.
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