While anti-gunners continue to try to make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to purchase a firearm, they argue that their efforts are aimed at stopping criminals from getting guns. No matter how many times we point out that bad guys are still going to get guns, they persist.

I don’t know. Maybe they don’t believe us. Maybe they’re just completely convinced that we’re wrong and that bad guys are walking into the neighborhood gun store and walking out with a firearm that they can’t accept what we’re saying is true.

Not believing us outright is fine. Skepticism is generally pretty healthy, in my opinion, so that’s fine.

But maybe they’ll believe the Department of Justice if they won’t listen to us.

Here are some bite-sized nuggets from Townhall’s Beth Baumann:

When anti-gunners try to tell you criminals get their firearms from a gun show or retail store, show them this: pic.twitter.com/QVyCgnJcUn — Beth Baumann (@eb454) January 16, 2019

As Beth pointed out over at our sister-site, these numbers pop up just days after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) introduces yet another “assault weapon” ban. Note that the vast majority of firearms used aren’t long guns at all, but are handguns. Further, the tiny percentage that represents long guns also include firearms that would be exempt from the new ban, including various shotguns.

The number of criminals who used a rifle to commit crimes is less than 2%: pic.twitter.com/95FRhWjmvh — Beth Baumann (@eb454) January 16, 2019

Now, here’s the really interesting part from the report:

Among prisoners who possessed a frearm when they committed the offense for which they were imprisoned and who reported the source from which they obtained it, the most common source (43%) was of-the-street or the underground market (table 5). Another 7% of state and 5% of federal prisoners stole the frearm, and 7% of state and 8% of federal prisoners reported that they obtained the frearm at the location of the crime. //bearingarms.com/wp-content/themes/Bearing-Arms-2016/images/ba_placeholder.png //bearingarms.com/wp-content/themes/Bearing-Arms-2016/images/ba_placeholder.png //bearingarms.com/wp-content/themes/Bearing-Arms-2016/images/ba_placeholder.png //bearingarms.com/wp-content/themes/Bearing-Arms-2016/images/ba_placeholder.png 620w" sizes="(max-width: 687px) 100vw, 687px" />

Here we see how criminals get their firearms broken down. While ten percent of criminals buying at gun stores seems high, let’s also remember that not everyone starts life as a criminal. They’re given a fair shake, and that means enjoying their full rights as a citizen.

Additionally, the report doesn’t state if they use their own identities to try and purchase a firearm. If they used fraudulent means to obtain the gun from a law-abiding dealer, I’d challenge gun grabbers to tell us what gun stores are supposed to do about it when they have no reason to believe it’s fraudulent in the first place.

Let’s also note that only a tiny fraction of the total guns could be remotely stopped by something like universal background checks. Honestly, the actual impact would be even smaller. Many of those guns sold to these criminals were sold by people who knew the individual’s background and sold them the gun anyway.

In other words, they were enabling a criminal and knew it, yet did it anyway regardless of the law. Do you think a universal background check will stop these people?

Frankly, this report shows that criminals will stop at nothing to get their hands on a gun. They’ll use any avenue available to them, and nothing’s going to change that.

The best we can do is make sure they’re facing armed citizens.