Who knew? Criminals do not acquire their guns legally!

John Hinderaker writes at Powerline,

...criminals do not acquire their guns legally.

This is important because, in response to high-profile shootings, gun control advocates always recur to a few longstanding proposals–none of which have anything to do with actually reducing the rate of gun violence. A favorite liberal chestnut is “universal background checks.” Background checks already must be run by all licensed firearms dealers; making them universal means requiring individuals who sell a firearm to a friend or relative, etc., to run a background check first. The problem is that criminals get guns from fellow gang members and other non-law abiding friends and acquaintances. These people are not going to run background checks, no matter what federal law provides.

This study involved interviews of 99 incarcerated criminals in Cook County:


If “universal background checks” won’t do anything to prevent criminals from getting easy access to firearms, what can we do? The obvious answer is to more vigorously prosecute gun violations – acts involving firearms which are already criminal. That wouldn’t prevent all criminals from acquiring guns, of course, but it would help. But the Obama administration has been lax about prosecuting gun violations, law enforcement in general not being a high priority for our president.

Read more here.