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Report on Brady Act and prosecutions
Here, in pdf.
Gist of it: during 2006 there were
8,000,000 plus checks
117,000 denials (125,000 denials, offset by 8,000 reversals on appeal)
77,000 of these were referred to Field Offices for investigation (80% not involving felony records)
273 persons charged, and a whopping
73 convictions.
US Attorneys declining to take cases appears a major factor in the drop from 77,000 to 273. Historically, they were skeptical of felon in possession cases, viewing them as street crimes that didn't merit Federal attention. If 80% of cases referred involve non-felons, I'd imagine they were even more skeptical of taking a case where the defendant had a domestic violence misdemeanor conviction, was an illegal alien, had been committed to an institution, etc..
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Any estimate on what those 117,000 denials or the 73 convictions cost tax payers?
And this is the core of the whole argument. We have all these gun laws that are seemingly never enforced unless the suspect is an otherwise law abiding citizen. This we call law enforcement. Fyodor Dostoyevsky would recognize this situation in a heartbeat.