Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The national instant background check system, NICS, conducts background checks on people who want to buy a firearm from a Federal Firearms Licensee, like Walmart. So far in its history, the NICS has examined 40 million transactions: out of that there were 300,000 people who were prevented from buying a firearm. Out of those there were 2 thousand prosecutions. Out of that there were 44 convictions. That means 299,956 honest citizens were falsely accused. It’s obvious that criminals don’t buy their guns at Walmart: only honest people buy them there, and then wait 10 days. Criminals don’t wait, nor are they limited to one gun a month. Who exactly is the NICS affecting? And how detrimental to society is that compared to so many false accusations? Background checks are obviously a bad law because they can’t be justified by the results, are invasive to privacy, and have no value other than political grandstanding. Why is there still a NICS?