Thirdpower notes that Garen Wintenmute, anti-gun professor and anti-gun activist extraordanire, has released the results of his survey of gun dealers. They note:
The majority of gun dealers and pawnbrokers (54.9 percent) believed it is too easy for criminals to get guns in the U.S. Agreement varied little with age and sex, was somewhat more common among gun dealers than pawnbrokers, and was more common among respondents from corporate/multisite licensees than others.
That’s it? You sent a 12 page questionnaire with 38 questions to gun dealers, and this is the best you can tout, other than some other uncontroversial statistics? Did you ask about any other contentious issues? I’m sure they did. I’m also sure they’d be touting the results of those if the answers had gone the way they wanted them to. I’m going to guess that the results did not go the way they wanted them to.
Shocking! Gun dealers, who BTW stand to profit from further sales restrictions on private sales, believe criminals get guns too easily. Show me a right infringed and I will show you a commercial entity that greased the skids…
Reminds me of the 5 hour energy commercials I’ve been seeing lately: “73% of doctors would recommend a low-calorie energy drink to their patients who use energy drinks. 73%!!!”
Sounds meaningful until you stop and think for a minute and realize that for all those words they didn’t actually say anything.
I just looked up the full study. The vast majority of the survey was basically demographic questions (gender, age, reason for being in the business, most commonly sold category, etc). The press release fails to point out that their survey shows >95% of all respondents support the statement “Private ownership of guns is essential for a free society”
I believe it’s too easy for criminals to get guns in the US.
I also believe it’s “to easy” for criminals to get guns in te UK.
Now ask me if I believe there’s any proven way to make it more difficult, at all, via any method.
I also believe it is too easy for criminals to get a Big Mac- because it is too easy for them to get released from prison. This statement does not equal “I want to see more gun laws”.