The next largest number are those who’ve been adjudicated with a mental health problem. Some 177,000 of the recent numbers are veterans added by the Veterans Administration.
“Mental defectives” account for over 29 percent of the prohibited possessors in the NICS data base. In 2007, only 10.15 percent of prohibited possessors were listed as mental defectives. Under the Obama administration, the number of “mental defectives” in the prohibited possessor list has grown from 518,499 at the end of 2007, and 648,120 at the end of 2008, to 3,774,301. That’s almost a sixfold increase of over three million people.
The Obama administration has said that it wishes to swell those numbers even more, by adding in Social Security recipients who choose to have their financial affairs attended to by someone else. Those numbers are reported to be over four million. The Obama administration backed away from that executive action after a strong public reaction.
Then come those convicted of a crime, a felony, or misdemeanor punishable by two years of incarceration or more. They amount to almost 15 percent of the total. Only 15 percent of those on the NICS prohibited possessor list are there for felony or serious misdemeanor convictions. Fugitives from justice account for another 3.6 percent.
Those four categories account for 96.8% of all the people on the database. All the rest are relatively minor numbers:
- State Prohibitors: .9 percent (These numbers started being added in to the NICS system in April, 2012. They include information voluntarily submitted by the states.)
- Convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence: .9 percent
- Order of Protection/Restraining Order domestic violence: .4 percent. (Orders of Protection/Restraining orders are relatively easy to obtain, but they also are often temporary.)
- Under Indictment/Information: .3 percent
- Federally denied persons file: .2 percent
- Renounced U.S. Citizenship: .2 percent
- Unlawful user/addicted to a controlled substance: .2 percent (This one appears to be low, but most people who have been convicted in a court of law are likely picked up in the felony/serious misdemeanor category.)
- Dishonorable discharge: .1 percent
Looking at these numbers it’s clear that gun control advocates’ priorities are wrong. If they want the federal government to do something about “gun violence” it appears that they’d best start with an effective defense or southern border and a sensible immigration policy.
©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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