# Educate the Issue-Ignorant: gun control **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339 "2004-05-27T14:40:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LuckySevens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@LuckySevens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LuckySevens)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/21 "2004-05-28T07:13:19Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Isn’t it true that, although there are background checks and waiting periods when you buy from a dealer, that if you buy from another private individual (like at a gun show), you just hand him the cash and he hands you the gun? No muss, no fuss. > > I have this mental image of Homer Simpson, after the waiting period, impatiently jumping up and down outside the door of the gun shop, which wasn’t yet open. As soon as the guy opened up the door, Homer rushed in and headed for the rest room. The best part was when he was reading out his infridgements over the years “You’ve been in a mental hospital, Beaten up president bush…” “FORMER President bush” “You’ve been tagged as ‘unstable’” “Aww Im never going to get a gun now” “Relax pal, that only limits you to 5 fire arms or less” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/22 "2004-05-28T07:44:33Z")
> [@BF](#): > > Ditto what **Crafter\_man** > less than 2% of firearms used in crimes originate from gun shows. Another gun-control advocacy fallacy. Just curious about the other 98%. Assuming that the majority of them are **originally** purchased through legitmate means, how do they eventually wind up in the hands of the bad guys? ---
**Author:** ![BF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5ac83/32.png) [@BF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BF)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/23 "2004-05-28T13:08:07Z")
From the Bureau of Justice Statistics: According to the 1997 Survey of State Prison Inmates, among those possessing a gun, the source of the gun was from - [ul] [li]a flea market or gun show for fewer than 2% [/li][li]a retail store or pawnshop for about 12% [/li][li]family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source for 80% [/li][li]During the offense that brought them to prison, 15% of State inmates and 13% of Federal inmates carried a handgun, and about 2%, a military-style semiautomatic gun. [/li][li]On average, State inmates possessing a firearm received sentences of 18 years, while those without a weapon had an average sentence of 12 years. [/li][li]Among prisoners carrying a firearm during their crime, 40% of State inmates and 56% of Federal inmates received a sentence enhancement because of the firearm. [/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/24 "2004-05-28T14:30:23Z")
I can see this thread quickly spiraling into IMHO or GD territory. Has the OP been answered? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/25 "2004-05-28T14:33:21Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I, being a person who has been diagnosed paranoid schizzy, see no reason why previous questions about one’s mental competency should be relevant. Current? Yeah, absolutely. Administer a test. But the person doing the test shouldn’t have access to your prior psych or civil incompetency records. They don’t. To deny a person a firearm purchase on the basis of a mental deficiency, the person must have been so adjudged by a court of law. The BATFE isn’t reviewing medical records or history. > [@](#): > > And if you were charged but not convicted of crimes, that should be totally irrelevant. That is how it now stands to the best of my knowledge. I’m pretty sure the yellow sheet (that’s what the NICS form a prospective firearm purchaser must complete is generally called) requires you to state only felony _convictions_, not indictments, or mere charges. You can view a sample of the yellow sheet (ATF F 4473) here: [http://www.atf.gov/forms/4473/index.htm](http://www.atf.gov/forms/4473/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/26 "2004-05-28T14:37:32Z")
I should clarify that a little bit. If a propsective purchaser is under indictment for a felony _at the time the NICS check is requested_ he will be denied the purchase. If he’s **not** convicted of that felony charge in the subsequent hearing(s), he will then be eligible to purchase a gun. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/27 "2004-05-28T15:30:16Z")
1 > [@UncleBeer](#): > > I should clarify that a little bit. If a propsective purchaser is under indictment for a felony _at the time the NICS check is requested_ he will be denied the purchase. If he’s **not** convicted of that felony charge in the subsequent hearing(s), he will then be eligible to purchase a gun. **UncleBeer** , this and your previous post are correct for the Federal background check for purchase, but I think **AHunter3** was asking about the _may issue_ clause for a state-issued gun permit. In Massachusetts (and presumably other “may issue” states), the issuing authority can ask any questions he wants and base his decision on any criteria he wants, above and beyond the federal and state mandated requirements. If he wants to deny you because you were arrested for shoplifting when you were 15, even if no charges were brought, he is free to do so. There is a clause in the MA law which allows you to bring the issuing authority to court if you think you were unfairly denied, but AFAIK that is very rarely successful in MA. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/28 "2004-05-28T16:10:36Z")
You may very well be correct, Muldoon. I hadn’t considered that. ---
**Author:** ![BF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5ac83/32.png) [@BF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BF)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/29 "2004-05-28T17:10:48Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Oh, and bullets. A couple boxes of ammunition for each, and whatever cleaning rods and cloths and other maintenance equipment I need. In brief, are the gun-control proponents trying to require licensing, or just registering what gun is in whose possession, or what? As for this part of the OP, here’s [California’s latest](http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200405%5CPOL20040526a.html) “safety” measure. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/30 "2004-05-28T20:53:57Z")
“Gun control” is a broad category of issues, like “traffic safety”. My question is, how powerful is the movement to _ban_ guns in all or most cases (in comparison to, say, the movement to ban abortion) as opposed to things like registration. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/31 "2004-05-28T21:42:04Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > “Gun control” is a broad category of issues, like “traffic safety”. > > My question is, how powerful is the movement to _ban_ guns in all or most cases (in comparison to, say, the movement to ban abortion) as opposed to things like registration. Almost all of them say, “We don’t want to ban hunting and sporting firearms, blaa blaa blaa.” So if what they say _genuinely_ reflects their end-goal (and that’s a _big_ “if”), then a movement to “ban all guns in the U.S.” is virtually non-existent. Of course, if this were really true, then the gun control folks would “close up shop” after their laws were passed. But they never close up the shop. Never. History shows that they start another campaign to ban or restrict a _ **new** _ class of firearms. Every time. They keep “chipping away at it,” little by little… ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/32 "2004-05-28T22:17:00Z")
What are the limits on gunsmithing? I can figure out that it’s probably illegal to make your own machineguns, or to convert a semi-automatic into full-auto… but are there any other less obvious restrictions? I can think of barrel length on a shotgun and rifle ammo in a pistol, but, yeah… what else are you limited in trying? ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339/33 "2004-05-29T00:01:26Z")
For info on concealed carry: [www.packing.org](http://www.packing.org) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-the-issue-ignorant-gun-control/247339.md?page=1)