Daily Archives: January 8, 2014

3 posts
Civil Rights

The Week in Politician Gun Safety

On Tuesday, it was reported that New York State Homeland Security chief Jerry Hauer had pulled a gun and flagged two Swedish officials with it. Why?  He needed a laser pointer, and the closest one at hand was the one on his gun.

Let’s spot the number of problems with his explanation:

In the end, I used the laser gun. Was it the smartest thing in the world do? Absolutely not. (…) I would never point an empty firearm [ed: there is no such thing] at anyone, let alone a loaded gun.

Not only was it not the smartest thing to do, it wasn’t smart at all. How does this guy get to carry a concealed pistol in New York City (and in federal buildings, no less), but the average citizen cannot?

Next up is Kentucky Representative Leslie Combs, who had a negligent discharge in her office. Apparently, she was “purposely disarming it to put it up because I didn’t like it and I didn’t want to use it any more.”

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Civil Rights

2013 NICS Numbers

The FBI has released the tally of NICS background checks, broken down by state [pdf]. Georgia had 527,885, which puts us about the middle of the pack. It’s the highest number since the system went on line in 1998. States with over one million checks were Florida, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Texas had the most checks at 1,633,278 and Hawaii came in last at 17,416.

These numbers only tell part of the story, however. Many states, including Georgia, exempt buyers with state-issued carry permits from the NICS check, and a one-time sale of multiple guns only counts as one transaction. On top of that, NICS checks are often run for the issuance of carry permits, among other things that aren’t directly related to the sale of a firearm.

For example, Kentucky appears to be second in the nation, with 1,578,331 checks run, but the state runs a NICS check every month [pdf, p.

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