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Orrcountry,

Evidently your own personal experience at gun shows justifies you purporting that illegal gun purchases don't happen at gun shows across the country but jt beat me to it on that sticky wicket.

Stolen guns used in crimes only amount to 10% to 15%. The most common way guns get into the wrong hands is through straw purchase sales. Ex: 20% of licensed California dealers agreed to sell handguns to researchers posing as illegal straw buyers. The next biggest source of illegal gun transactions are sales made by legally licensed but corrupt at-home and commercial gun dealers. Nearly 40% of legal gun sales involve privates sales not requiring background checks. I suppose this has not been going on for long time either because you haven't personally seen it with your own eyes. To be fair, with 60,000 federally licensed dealers alone, it would be a tad difficult for you to personally observe all of them.

A few other things that may be off your radar screen:

A large percentage of Americans, 92% CBS poll, 91% Fox poll, favor universal background checks for any gun buyer.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, trade group for leading gun manufacturers will not oppose expansion of background checks. The president, Steve Sanetti, "From the commercial side, we're already there, and we've been there, and we were the ones that have been the strongest proponents of an effective, complete background check."

Police depts across the country are very concerned about the long waiting periods to get ammunition for gun training for their officers.

Only 4% of violent crimes can be attributed to people with mental illnesses. There is much more violent crime associated with alcohol and drugs.

2011, nearly 10 times more people shot and killed in arguments than by civilians trying to stop a crime.

For every one time a gun is used in self-defense in the home, there are 7 assaults or murders, 11 suicide attempts and 4 accidents. In one experiment, 1/3 of 8 to 12 year old boys who found a handgun pulled the trigger.

Then there is domestic violence. There is far too little discussion about the huge problem of anger issues resulting in violence. In 2010, nearly 6 times more women were shot by husband, boyfriends, ex-partners than murdered by male strangers.

For all these reasons and more, I am in favor of universal background checks along with over 90% of Americans and can't imagine how anyone can logically and sensibly be against it.

From: Do you favor universal background checks for gun purchases in Minnesota?

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