Percentage of denials hits low under Obama
Federal background checks are denying gun purchasers under President
Obama at about half the rate they did under President Clinton and also
at a slower clip than during President George W. Bush's administration,
according to data obtained by The Washington Times under the Freedom of
Information Act.
The federal National Instant Criminal Background
Check System is designed to weed out would-be gun buyers with criminal
records or histories of mental health problems. Gun control advocates
have pushed for the system to be expanded in the wake of mass shootings
as a way to keep firearms out of the wrong hands.
But statistics
provided to The Times show that almost everyone who applies under the
system is approved and it hardly matters which party controls the White
House.
In 1999 and 2000, the two full years during which the
system was operational under Mr. Clinton, just 0.83 percent of
applicants were denied. During Mr. Bush's eight years in office, the
denial rate was about 0.67 percent.
Under Mr. Obama, the denial
rate has dropped to 0.46 percent — and was even lower in the six months
after the December 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School
that renewed the focus on the system.
The total number of denials
is publicly available, but monthly totals obtained by The Times show
rates varying from as high as 1 percent, in February 1999 to as low as
0.33 percent in January 2013.
All told, about 171,028,000 federal
background checks were run — with about 1,024,000 denials — from Jan. 1,
1999, to June 30, 2013.
....
Mr. Baker said a bigger factor is that political rhetoric in recent
years has convinced many law-abiding citizens that they may need to buy
guns now or never. As a result, purchases from federally licensed
dealers under Mr. Obama, and thus the number of checks, have reached
levels not seen during the Clinton or Bush administrations. Because the
new buyers are law-abiding citizens who cannot be denied guns, the
refusal rate has dipped.
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Friday, February 14, 2014
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