PA Bill Number: HB1661

Title: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine.

Description: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine. ...

Last Action: Act No. 17 of 2024

Last Action Date: May 15, 2024

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In Nevada, bogus background check argument surfaces :: 07/20/2015

An editorial published today by Vegas, Inc., – a self-described “aesthetic hybrid between In Business Las Vegas and Fast Company” – dredges up a bogus argument in support of passing a universal background check measure in the Silver State next year, proving that if a lie is told often enough, it becomes accepted as truth.

At issue is the claim, as published in today’s on-line editorial, that, “With some exceptions, the proposed law would require every person who buys a gun from an unlicensed, private seller — they account for about 40 percent of all gun sales and typically are found at gun shows and online — to undergo a computerized FBI criminal background check. In many cases, it can be done very quickly.” Nice try, but no cigar, because this estimate was discredited more than two years ago by the Washington Post fact checker, and that newspaper has never been friendly toward the Second Amendment.

One should read the entire Washington Post refutation of the “40% check” allegation to understand how it was reached and why it earned “Three Pinocchios” from the Washington Post. The Pinocchio is a polite way of questioning the veracity of a claim, referring to the Disney cartoon character whose nose grew when he told a fib. Getting three of these is tantamount to being called out as a prevaricator.

Yet, in this case, the 40% estimate remains popularly repeated because it sounds so horrible to the ill-informed voters who will ultimately decide the fate of the Nevada initiative. This appears to be what gun control supporters want; the majority casting votes on an issue guided by misinformation. The end result is the addition of a new data-gathering requirement that could help the government track the whereabouts of privately-owned guns, which many believe is clearly none of the government’s business.

Nevada rights activists will likely be battling this canard for the next 15 months. Some people may get the impression that there are currently no background checks at all, and that simply isn’t true. Background checks have been required on commercial sales for nearly two decades. Many sales at gun shows are done by licensed dealers, so the check is conducted, and research has found that less than one percent of guns used by criminals come from such shows, anyway, according to a survey done for the Justice Department.

Two years after being debunked by the Washington Post, one would think that the gun prohibition lobby, and its media cheerleaders, would stop perpetuating the 40% estimate. It raises a question: If they are willing to use this highly questionable statistic to advance their argument, what else are they saying that isn’t kosher?

MEANWHILE, as predicted following the Charleston tragedy, anti-gunners now are pushing to change federal gun law, extending the “hold” period beyond 72 hours if there is a problem with an “instant background check.”

The Hill is reporting today that anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety is launching an advertising campaign to push Congress to make the change. The 72-hour period is a check against abuse so that nobody can just decide to take the National Instant Check System (NICS) off-line to essentially suspend the Second Amendment by not okaying firearms transactions.