A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows federal agents tried to show ease of illegally purchasing guns online only to fail in 72 out of 72 attempts.

The 72 attempts spanned a two and a half year time frame.

The NRA-ILA reported:

In yet another embarrassment for the gun control lobby, a government investigation of online gun sales designed to determine “whether private sellers would knowingly sell a firearm to an individual prohibited from possessing one” determined that … no, actually, they would not. In 72 attempts undertaken over 2 ½ years, undercover agents trying to buy guns through readily-accessible Internet sites failed exactly 100% of the time to complete a sale when the seller had reason to believe the buyer was prohibited or lived in another state.

The GAO report was titled, “Internet Firearm Sales: ATF Enforcement Efforts and Outcomes of GAO Covert Testing.” It was commissioned by three rabid gun controllers, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Cummings, Schatz, and Warren were apparently all lured in by a Michael Bloomberg-funded 2011 study which claimed “62% of private sellers” would go through with an online sale even after finding out the would-be buyer had a criminal history. Bloomberg’s study gave ammunition to the gun control zealots who then urged the GAO study, only to find that the so-called lucrative market of “unregulated” online sales is not there.

Again, federal agents made 72 attempts to buy guns online during a two and a half year time frame and failed every time.

Gun controllers in the House or Senate and frequently speak of a loophole that allows criminals to buy guns online. Their surrogates in Hollywood and the media often make the same claims following a high profile firearm-based attack. For example, after the Las Vegas attack Jimmy Kimmel claimed, “Right now, there are loopholes in the law that let people avoid background checks if they buy a gun privately–from another party–if they buy a gun online or at a gun show.”



Sorry Jimmy, there is no loophole. There are private sales–which have been legal since the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791–but besides these, Americans have been forced to undergo a background check for every retail sale since 1998. In fact, it is illegal to buy a gun online without going through a background check. If an individual from Florida wants to purchase a firearm online from a gun store in Oklahoma, that gun has to be shipped to a Florida store where the buyer passes a background check before taking possession of it.

The GAO report is clear–72 attempted purchases, 72 fails.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.