FBI Dispells Gun Show Loophole Myth

"Close the Gun Show Loophole! Close the Gun Show Loophole!"

This is the perennial cry of those that want to restrict private sales of firearms between two adults.

"If we just close the loophole, criminals and crazies won't get guns!"

Um, no. This is their "reasoning" behind this restriction, but, its been dis-proven. Alphecca has the basic information:

The study involved a pool of more than 800 incidents from which researchers selected 40, involving 43 offenders (13 of them admitted gangbangers/drug traffickers) and 50 police officers.

What researchers found was that handguns were used in the assaults on officers and all but one were obtained illegally. None of the firearms in the study was obtained from gun shows. None of the offenders pick a particular type of gun to use because he/she felt it would do the most damage.

[…]

In conclusion, none of the criminals studied was hindered by any law, federal, state or local, established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws. Police officers faced with an armed criminal who hesitates while he/she decides to shoot or don’t shoot will likely find himself/herself a potentially deadly split second or more behind the criminal who has no hesitation whatsoever about pulling the trigger.

The rest can be found here: Shoot or Don't Shoot