How Many People Prosecuted For Failing A Nics Background Check

Twoscore-two per centum of people blocked from buying guns afterward U.Due south. background checks had felony convictions on their records, according to FBI data provided to the Associated Press.

Additionally, the number of blocked gun sales nearly doubled betwixt 2019 and 2020, the information shows. The number of would-be gun owners prevented from buying firearms hit a tape loftier of more than 300,000 in 2020.

The increase in rejected gun-buying bids coincides with an overall uptick in firearm sales that started during the pandemic and has persisted into 2021, the AP reported. Despite a Democratic bulk in Congress and pressure from President Joe Biden, lawmakers accept yet to laissez passer new gun control restrictions.

The House successfully passed legislation in March that would require background checks on all gun sales and transfers, in add-on to a ten-day cess period. But the pecker is stalled in the Senate and lacks Republican support.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see beneath:

According to the data, the rate of barred would-be gun buyers also increased somewhat over the previous two years, from about 0.6 percent to 0.8 percentage. That could be in function because many of the people who tried to become guns in 2020 were buying them for the start time and may not have been aware that they were legally barred from owning them, said Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor specializing in gun policy.

"Some may accept a felony confidence on their record and not think nigh it," he said.

Making a fake statement in connection with a background bank check is a felony punishable by upwards to 10 years in prison and a hefty fine, but few people are prosecuted for what would corporeality to lying on the form filled out before a gun purchase, he said.

In 2017, just 12 of the 112,000 people denied a gun purchase, nigh 0.01 per centum, were federally prosecuted, largely due to limited resources for the time-intensive investigations, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

Research from the group Everytown for Gun Safety establish that sixteen percent of would-exist gun buyers in 2020 were prohibited past land law, like the extreme-take chances protection orders or cerise-flag laws passed in several states. Another 12 percent were related to domestic violence, either people subject to a protective order or bedevilled of a misdemeanor domestic violence crime.

The data shows how necessary the legislation is, said Sarah Burd-Sharps, director of research at Everytown.

"There'due south no question that background checks piece of work, but the system is working overtime to prevent a record number of people with dangerous prohibitors from being able to buy firearms," she said in a argument. "The loopholes in the law permit people to avert the system, even if they but see online or at a gun show for the showtime time."

Gun rights groups have pushed back against the proposal, and Alan Gottlieb, founder of the grouping the Second Amendment Foundation, said the increase in denials might be partly because more states have been updating their records of restricted people. There are sometimes false positives also, he said.

"A day doesn't become past that our office doesn't become complaint calls from people who've been denied wrongly," he said.

The data also comes as a growing number of conservative-leaning states drop requirements for people to get groundwork checks and grooming to carry guns in public.

Texas last calendar week became the latest country of about 20 to drop permitting requirements among a push that began gathering steam several years ago. Gun rights groups say those requirements are an unfair burden for law-abiding gun owners, only firearm safety groups worry it's a dangerous trend that volition let more firearms in the incorrect easily.

Denial data is released by the FBI, but the information nerveless by Everytown breaks it down by year and includes data from states such as California and Florida, which comport their own background checks.