Why Check If You Won't Prosecute

Dom Raso has another excellent commentary video up. This time he takes on background checks. As he correctly notes, to the average person background checks sound like a good idea. Unfortunately they do nothing to stop violent crime.

In the most recent statistics, 76,000 people lied about their eligibility to purchase a firearm on the Form 4473. Of these, only 13 were prosecuted according to Dom. We in the gun culture know that it is a Federal felony to lie on the Form 4473 and each question lied about counts as another chargeable crime. We don't lie because we are honest people. Criminals lie because that is what they do and because they are smart enough to know that virtually nothing is going to happen to them if they do lie. Given that, what incentive is there not to lie if you are a criminal? The answer is none and that is why background checks do nothing to stop crime.