Another View -- John Lott: Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly are wrong about gun control

The onslaught against Sen. Kelly Ayotte continues. Since she dared to vote against the Senate gun control bill in April she has endured inaccurate ads from out-of-state opponents such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg condemning her vote.
Former Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, are now taking their turn to stir up opposition when they visit New Hampshire today.

While deserving our greatest sympathy for the tragedy they have personally suffered, Giffords and Kelly are plain wrong about the “common-sense gun control proposals” they advocate.
Consider “background checks.” According to Kelly: “40 percent of all Americans who buy a gun buy it without a background check.” That is simply false. You can only get a number even close by counting within-family gifts and inheritances as sales.

How we buy guns is already quite different than it was during the early 1990s. Prior to the Brady Act going into effect on Feb. 28, 1994, half the states required background checks, but federal law only required that people sign a statement saying under threat of perjury that they did not have a criminal record or a history of mental problems. Today, federally licensed dealers check whether potential gun buyers have not committed a felony or many types of misdemeanor convictions, have not been dishonorably discharged from the military, and have not been involuntarily committed for mental illness.

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