A friend had found a document from 2012 regarding the prosecutions (or lack thereof) for violations of the Brady Act and Federal laws regarding felons trying to buy guns. I covered that in a post 4 years ago and I guess with all the renewed talk of Universal Background Checks being the ointment to heal all Gun Violence crimes, I figure we can revisit its effectiveness:
It is simple: Two million violations of the Brady Act represent two million investigations and prosecutions, right? You have a prohibited person dead to rights by walking into a gun store or gun show (forbidden), very possibly manipulating a gun (also forbidden) and then filling the ATF form 4473 in which they have to lie or if truthful, they are signing the evidence of breaking the law with their own hand. And if a Federal Prosecutor was to save him/herself time, only one count would be issued for the multiple violations and that would entail 10 year in Fed Pen and $200,000 in fines.
So where are the two million prosecutions? Nowhere. Maybe a Million? Five Hundred thousand perhaps and that would be prosecuting only 25% of the violations? So what are the numbers?
I bumped into the info for 5 years: 2006 to 2010. I knew it was bad, but the reality is absolutely absurd. Here is a summary:
2006: Total denials: 77,233. Referred for prosecution: 172. Guilty Plea or Conviction: 73.
2007: Total denials: 66,817. Referred for prosecution: 196. Guilty Plea or Conviction: 48.
2008: Total denials: 78,906. Referred for prosecution: 147. Guilty Plea or Conviction: 43.
2009: Total denials: 67,324. Referred for prosecution: 140. Guilty Plea or Conviction: 32.
2010: Total denials: 76,142. Referred for prosecution: 62. Guilty Plea or Conviction: 13.
Of the 366,422 denials issued with pride in those five years, they only managed to get 209 convictions. That is 0.05%,
halfa twentieth of one percent of all denials that ended up with a conviction or a plea of guilty.
We need more background checks, and the statistics prove it! (or not)
September 12, 2015
Let me put it this way: If you a re a felon and try buy a gun in a gun shop, you have a 99.98% probability to get away without repercussions. I think it is more dangerous for them to try to get a gun from a black market dealer selling from the trunk of his car.
I think the most important stat is the “referred for prosecution” numbers, not the percent prosecuted.
78K denials does not mean 78,000 felons tried to buy a gun. It may very mean 78,000 false denials for any number of reasons. A better analysis would be the referred for prosecution/convicted ratio. The conviction rate is closer to 25%.
Out of the 72K, there were only 3,400 appeals/reversals..
We need to stop using “the majority of the denials are false positives. It is not so.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bjs/grants/239272.pdf
“If you are a felon and try buy a gun in a gun shop, you have a 99.98% probability to get away without repercussions.”
Should be called the “stupid unenforced laws” loophole
Investigating and prosecuting “lie and try” violations isn’t as glamorous and career enhancing as pretending to be a biker or entrapping random misfits so you can break out the tacticool gear and the MRAPs. Also the antis want more laws, not effective enforcement of current laws because their real target is lawful gun owners.
Great, truthful post @Miguel Most ppl know it’s a scam
[…] enforced laws there are but they do love to bring their “results.” Not long ago I posted again about the failure of federal authorities to prosecute violators of the Brady Backgroun… and I closed that post this […]