Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile!

[dogtown tom]

Alright, well what is the correct % then?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_background_check#States_with_universal_background_check_laws

 

[Will Munny]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_background_check#States_with_universal_background_check_laws

Yes, that is the list, but I don't see a percentage anywhere.

Edit.

I crunched my own numbers.
Using this and this I come up with 51.46% of the US living in jurisdictions where a background check is required for buying a firearm. This is using the broadest definition (so counting states where the law only applies to handguns for example as being requiring a check). Using a more narrow definition it would obviously be less.

So my original guesstimate seems reasonable.

 

[Poper]

What calls?
Dealers dont call ATF for anything.
Background checks are run by the FBI.

Of course the FBI, ATF and all other alphabet agencies never talk to each other or share information.

 

[fastbolt]

Anyone working in LE who has ever had to try and trace a crime gun or other firearm when it comes back "record not on file" has had occasion to find out how many dead ends can be encountered, and how it's not nearly so easy to trace firearms as TV/Movies makes it seem. Especially older guns. Guns made before serial numbers were required. Guns that made it into the country without being imported. Guns that changed hands in both legal and illegal transactions without records being made.

Then, there's the always entertaining instances where the original records (DROS) contained mistakes that were never caught and corrected. And never can be, due to businesses being closed, records keepers being deceased, etc.

It's not like all parts of the "system" are always up and working, either.

Let's not forget the ever frustrating and funny instances where modern firearms that ought to be institutionally registered to LE agencies (or security companies, etc) haven't actually been entered into the appropriate data bases. Or the "missing" firearms that may, or may not, have been entered into the state systems as lost/stolen. Sometimes inventories done by LE agencies can be ... interesting.

Balls of fun trying to trace guns.

 

[Will Munny]

Anyone working in LE who has ever had to try and trace a crime gun or other firearm when it comes back "record not on file" has had occasion to find out how many dead ends can be encountered, and how it's not nearly so easy to trace firearms as TV/Movies makes it seem. Especially older guns. Guns made before serial numbers were required. Guns that made it into the country without being imported. Guns that changed hands in both legal and illegal transactions without records being made.

Then, there's the always entertaining instances where the original records (DROS) contained mistakes that were never caught and corrected. And never can be, due to businesses being closed, records keepers being deceased, etc.

It's not like all parts of the "system" are always up and working, either.

Let's not forget the ever frustrating and funny instances where modern firearms that ought to be institutionally registered to LE agencies (or security companies, etc) haven't actually been entered into the appropriate data bases. Or the "missing" firearms that may, or may not, have been entered into the state systems as lost/stolen. Sometimes inventories done by LE agencies can be ... interesting.

Balls of fun trying to trace guns.

There being a database and it being accessible to local street cops are two very different things.

 

[Elkins45]

Sometimes they do, but many of those transactions also go through the FFL again.

It would be interesting to know how many gun traces are successful in finding a 3rd of 4th, or … purchaser. My totally uninformed guess would be very few. I know there are a whole bunch of guns I bought new from an FFL when I was younger that I traded to some guy at a gun show table with no record. Or that I have no memory of who I sold/traded them to.

A couple of years ago I was looking for a specific receipt and pulled out one for a gun I don’t remember ever buying, owning, shooting or disposing of. Even if I traded it back to the dealer I bought from I wouldn’t know when, so unless ATF has the manpower to search years of their bound book the trail would end with me.

 

[hso]

“The ATF disclosed to lawmakers that it manages a database of 920,664,765 firearm purchase records, including both digital and hard copy versions of these transactions.”

If you had followed the links to the source material it would have revealed that they're referring to the Out of Business Records Imaging System. When an FFL goes out of business the 4473s are sent to the BATFE. It is THOSE records that are being scanned for storage. It is a lot cheaper to store that sort of record.

NOT supposed to be kept according to law

That's incorrect with respect to these.

Since this thread was based on a misunderstanding of what records were being kept and we have repeatedly explained what the OOB records are we'll close this instead of repeating the same error.