Fact Checker: No, 40% of firearms (still) aren’t purchased without a background check
Democracy Dies in Darkness The truth behind the rhetoric No, 40% of firearms (still) aren’t purchased without a background check Tall tales and heated emotions run deep in on both sides of the gun debate. In the wake of the Valentine’s Day shooting at a Florida high school, claims that we thought had been buried long ago suddenly came back to life. For example, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told viewers of “Meet the Press” last Sunday, “ We have to end the absurdity of the gun show loophole. Forty percent of the guns in this country are sold without any background checks. ” The Fact Checker debunked this statistic twice in 2013 and again in 2015 . But it just won’t go away. So, we took another look. This number comes from a two-decade old study that looked at all gun transactions, inclduing gifts and inheritances — not just gun sales like Sanders says. A recent national survey examined gun sales b...