The Associated Press reported today that guns used in shootings at the Pentagon in March and a Las Vegas courthouse in January both came from Memphis where they were once in police custody. The guns were sold to license gun dealers and then fell into the hands of men who purchased them in Nevada. John Patrick Bedell, who was prohibited from buying a gun because of mental illness, bought a Ruger at a gun show in Las Vegas that did not require background checks. While one can certainly question the thinking that allows police departments to put more guns in the market, the question we really should ask is why we continue to allow unregulated sales at gun shows? The answer to that question is the NRA.

The AP report comes on the heels of the NRA’s latest fear campaign in which they called a Minnesota House bill that would have forced private sales at gun shows to go through background checks, “a dangerous piece of legislation.” They claimed it was “a stepping stone for gun control advocates seeking to ban all private sales, even among family and friends.” The House bill never got out of committee.

The NRA website states that only 0.7 percent of guns involved in crime are purchased at gun shows.  The information comes from a 2001 Department of Justice survey given to criminals in prison. The DOJ never attempted to verify the firearms reported in the survey or trace them to determine their chain of possession from original retail sale to the time they were transferred to the inmates surveyed. But let’s assume that the criminals told the truth and the survey was accurate, an admittedly dubious assumption at best. 0.7 percent sounds pretty small, but is it? According to Bureau of Justice statistics about 582,000 of reported murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults in 1993 were committed with firearms. If we use the percentage from the survey, then nearly 41,000 of the murders, robberies and aggravated assaults committed in 1993 were committed with handguns purchased at guns shows. Stolen guns account for only about 10% to 15% of guns used in crimes.

An ATF gun show investigation found that felons were associated with selling or purchasing firearms in 46 percent of the gun show investigations. Firearms that were illegally diverted at or through gun shows were recovered in subsequent crimes, including homicide and robbery, in more than a third of the gun show investigations. Only 60-70% of firearms sales in the United States are transacted through federally licensed firearm dealers. The rest are sold in the secondary market, which includes gun shows and private sales. The AFT reported that only 8% of the nation’s 124,000 retail gun dealers sell the majority of handguns that are used in crimes. They conclude that these licensed retailers are part of a block of rogue entrepreneurs tempted by the big profits of gun trafficking.

25 percent of all adults, and 40 percent of American households, own at least one firearm. Despite NRA arguments to the contrary, no one is trying to take handguns away from these individuals. But this country does have a huge problem. In 2005, 75% of the 10,100 homicides committed using firearms in the United States were committed using handguns. Homicide rates in the United States are two to four times higher than they are in countries that are economically and politically similar to it. Rates of gun-related homicides are greatest in southern and western states where gun laws are generally the most lax.

While cracking down on corrupt dealers is a priority for the ATF, more states should join the 17 that currently have some form of background check for purchases at gun shows. And more politicians need to quit being afraid of the NRA and to use some common sense when it comes to closing the gun show loophole.