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Philadelphia Inquirer Piece: The problems of gun checks

Jul 19, 2013 | Featured

John Lott’s newest piece at the Philadelphia Inquirer starts this way:

Everyone wants to keep criminals from getting guns. However, expanded background checks are not the simple answer that Sens. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) think they are.

Unfortunately, as the Senate considers the Manchin-Toomey amendment, Toomey is simply wrong to assert: “It’s the people who fail a criminal or mental-health background check who we don’t want having guns.”

Toomey apparently does not understand how the background-check system works. Take his claim on Sunday: “Since checks began in 1998, more than 100,000 people who are ineligible to own guns have been denied them each year.” Just because someone is “initially denied” permission to buy a gun doesn’t mean that he is really ineligible to own guns. . . .

johnrlott

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