Buchanan goes left on guns

Our (too moderate) representative fell for the trope that background checks at gun shows will help stop crazed shooters.

By Matt Walsh
| 10:10 a.m. March 25, 2021

Sarasota
Opinion

When you talk to tried-and-true, free-market, individual-rights, Second Amendment-defending, freedom-loving Republicans about Rep. Vern Buchanan and his conservative bona fides, their voice volume always drops lower and softer, their eyebrows go up, and then they look around to see if anyone is listening.

They all know it but are afraid to say it aloud: He’s a RINO.

Republican in name only.

Many Republicans who vote every two years for Buchanan know he tightrope-walks on the moderate fence and that as the years have passed since his first election in 2006, these Republicans often say in a low tones, “We need to find a strong conservative to run against Vern.”

This isn’t just gossip or a false perception — Buchanan’s moderateness. Two taxpayer watchdog groups in Washington that track congressional votes score Buchanan with a “C” — middle of the road.

The National Taxpayers Union, which tracks votes on taxes, spending and national debt, gives Buchanan a lifetime score of 68, or C+/Satisfactory.

The Club for Growth, a self-described defender of economic freedom, gives Buchanan a lifetime score of 58%, 65% in the 2019 Congress.

(In contrast, freshman Republican Rep. Greg Steube, who represents east Manatee and Sarasota counties, scored A’s for his voting in 2019 — a 100% ranking from the Club for Growth and 90% from the National Taxpayers Union.)

Buchanan last week really triggered conversations among conservatives when they saw he was among eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which would require background checks prior to gun transfers and gun sales among private parties. Immediate family members would be excluded.

Proponents of this legislation say it will close “the gun-show loophole.” Sellers and buyers at gun shows have not been required to conduct background checks, unlike retail gun dealers.

To explain his vote, Buchanan sent out the statement:

“Our laws cannot be effective if there are gaping loopholes that allow criminals and deranged individuals to purchase firearms at gun shows or over the internet without being subject to background checks,” Buchanan said. “Today I voted for H.R. 8 to close these loopholes — a proposal supported by more than 90% of gun owners in America, according to respected polling organizations.”

Gun-show loophole is a myth

John R. Lott Jr., arguably the nation’s foremost researcher of gun and crime data in America, addresses the so-called “gun show loophole” in his book “More Guns Less Crime.”

Here are excerpts:

“The theory linking ‘gun show loopholes’ and crime is fairly straightforward. To the extent that background checks on private transfers prevent criminals from getting guns, crime rates will be reduced. But its impact depends upon two factors: how many criminals actually get guns from gun shows and the ability of criminals to get guns from substitute sources.

“There is also a trade-off: Increased regulations on private transfers can reduce the number of gun shows and make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to get guns — guns that could have been used to protect against crime.

“The Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a survey of 18,000 state prison inmates in 1997, the largest survey of inmates ever conducted. Fewer than 1% (0.7%) who possessed a gun indicated they obtained it at a gun show. When combined with guns obtained at flea markets, the total rises to 1.7%.

“These numbers are dwarfed by the 40% who obtained their guns from friends or family and the 39% who obtained them on the street from illegal sources.

“Despite all the emphasis on gun shows, there is no empirical research linking gun show regulations to decreased crime rates. If anything, the evidence points in the other direction.

“Earlier work that I have done using state-level data from 1977 to 2000 implies that gun show regulations not only significantly reduce the number of gun shows by up to 24% but also increase murder and robbery rates.

“I found no statistically significant impact of background checks for handguns purchased through dealers, a result also found consistently in research by others. Enacting the assault weapons ban and instituting waiting periods did have one effect in my research: It significantly reduced the number of gun shows.

“[Other researchers] find that gun shows modestly reduce homicides and have no impact on suicides within 25 miles of the gun show. If this result is correct, the reduction in gun shows that I find from closing the gun show loophole may explain why closing the loophole could increase murder and robbery rates.

“Closing down gun shows is more likely to deprive law-abiding citizens of a relatively inexpensive source of guns than to prevent criminals from getting guns.”

Blowing with the popular wind, not the evidence (see sidebar).

What’s more, every gun owner knows the long-term strategy in Congress. Little by little, year by year, anti-Second Amendment legislators will peck away at gun rights and the Second Amendment until they ultimately get what they want: for the government to be the only gun owners in America.

H.R. 8 is just one of the steps, and Buchanan fell for it — siding with the false argument that restricting access to guns for law-abiding citizens will reduce crime and violence perpetrated by evil and deranged people.

Ask any sheriff or police chief. He or she will tell you bad people will always find a way to get a gun.