John Lott: Background Checks Reform Needs To Address False Positives

By Tom Knighton

John R. Lott is a name well known in gun rights circles. He’s kind of our go-to when it comes to information on how fewer guns mean more crime and vice versa. Let’s be frank. When the man speaks, we tend to listen.

When he takes to the pages of the New York Times, however, there’s a chance a lot more people will listen.

This time, he attacks the idea of background check reform not being the answer to violence.

The background check measures before Congress aim to improve enforcement of existing law and increase such reporting by imposing financial penalties on government officials whose agencies fail to provide required information. That’s a good goal, but any proposal should also fix another major problem with the background check system: false positives that stop law-abiding people from getting weapons that they might need to protect themselves and their families.

The background check system confuses the names of law-abiding individuals with those of criminals, resulting in thousands of “false positives” every year. Relying on phonetically similar names along with birth dates just doesn’t allow for much accuracy.

Ronnie Coleman, a Virginia resident, was not allowed to buy a gun in 2012 because another person …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms