New Report Provides More Evidence In Favor of Background Checks
By Penny Okamoto, Executive Director of Ceasefire Oregon
A new report concludes that requiring all gun sales to be subject to a background check would make it more difficult for criminals to obtain guns.
This report used data from a national survey of state prison inmates to calculate 1) the percentage of offenders, imprisoned for crimes committed with guns in thirteen states with the least restrictive gun laws, who would have been prohibited if their states had stricter gun laws, and 2) the source of gun acquisition for offenders who were and were not legally allowed to purchase guns.
The conclusions: Stricter gun ownership laws would have made gun possession illegal for many inmates who used guns to commit crimes. And 96.1% of offenders who were legally prohibited acquired their gun from a supplier not required to conduct a background check.