« British turning to crossbows for self-defense | Main | Media forming herd »

John Lott on "gun show loophole"

Economist John Lott takes on the "gun show loophole" in the Washington Times.

"By contrast, the Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a survey
of 18,000 state prison inmates in 1997, the largest survey of inmates
ever conducted. Less than 1 percent of inmates (0.7 percent) who had a
gun indicated they had obtained it at a gun show. When combined with
guns obtained from flea markets, the total rises to 1.7 percent. These
are tiny fractions compared to the estimated 40 percent of the
criminals' guns that are obtained from friends or family and the 39
percent that are obtained on the street or from illegal sources."