The NRA isn’t letting any grass grow under its feet when it comes to countering the Obama administration’s stepped-up anti-gun rhetoric these days. Good to see. Here are a few helpful statistics they’ve provided . . .

In 2010, federally-conducted NICS checks denied 72,659 transactions. As a result of NICS denials occurring in 2010, BATFE referred a total 62 charges against 33 individuals to federal prosecutors.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, felons in Chicago who illegally possess a gun typically receive a four-year sentence – a penalty on the low end of the state sentencing guidelines. In addition to lax sentencing, most people convicted of these gun crimes serve less than half of their prison terms, allowing them to return to criminal behavior. About a third of people charged with simple gun possession and about half charged with being a felon in possession of a gun in 2012 were rearrested for another crime by the end of 2013. Those charged with simple gun possession had an average of four prior arrests,while those charged with gun possession by a felon had an average of 10 prior arrests. Police have made 12,967 arrests since 2000, yet city attorneys have won just 2,068 convictions.

Turning to the Chicago Police Department’s 2011 Chicago murder analysis, one might be surprised to learn that nearly nine in 10 murder suspects have criminal records. That’s right – 90 percent of the murders committed in Chicago involve a suspected perpetrator with a criminal history.

One of the components of the “commonsense gun control” Obama called on Congress to pass includes universal background checks. Illinois has UBC and is home to the most violent city in America. See below on Illinois gun laws:

You cannot own or purchase firearms or ammunition in Illinois without a Firearms Owner’s Identification Card (FOID). There is a 72 hour waiting for handguns and 24 hour waiting period for long guns.

FOID requirements include:

– 21 years old

– no felony conviction

– not a patient in a mental health facility within the last 5 years or for more than 5 years.

– US resident

– Illinois resident

– no orders of protection

– no battery, assault, aggravated assault, violation of an order of protection convictions in the last 5 years.

– not convicted of domestic battery, aggravated domestic battery, or a substantially similar offense (much more to this)

– not an alien with a non-immigration visa (also much more)

– had a juvenile conviction that would have been an adult felony.

– not adjudicated as mentally disabled.

– not involuntarily admitted to mental health facility.

– not developmentally disabled.

Law enforcement agrees that Obama’s gun control agenda is not the answer, according to an extensive survey released by policeone.com. The survey questioned 15,000 active and retired law enforcement officers of all ranks and from departments ranging in size from less than 25 to more than 1,000. The results strongly show that law enforcement officers do not support Obama’s gun control agenda.

“The American people, and particularly our men and women in law enforcement, want politicians in Washington to stop pursuing a failed gun control agenda. Instead, they should work to fix our broken mental health system and get violent criminals off the streets,” said the executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, Chris W. Cox.