The national survey of firearms ownership reported by Miller and colleagues (1) provides much-needed estimates of the household ownership of guns and the transactions by which private citizens acquire their firearms. For guns acquired in the 2 years before this nationally representative survey in 2015, 22% of the transactions (whether a purchase, a gift, an inheritance, or other) did not include a background check. That percentage is now the best estimate available on this important matter and should supplant the oft-repeated claim that 40% of gun transactions do not include a background check (2). Even though I bear some credit (or blame) for the earlier estimate, I could not be more pleased to be done with it, given that it is based on data from a survey done more than 20 years ago and that, in any event, never directly asked participants about background checks....
Language: en
%G en %I American College of Physicians %@ 0003-4819 %U http://dx.doi.org/10.7326/M16-2819