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Ready for Universal Background Checks in 2015!

Dear Legislator,

Looking ahead to 2015, I'm excited that universal background checks are going to be on the table at the state house. Requiring a criminal background check on all gun sales in Vermont is a straight-forward, systematic way to make it harder for drug traffickers and domestic abusers to acquire weapons. And closing this loophole works! In the 16 states that require a background check on all handgun sales:

  -- 38% fewer woman are shot to death by their intimate partners (even though the non-firearm homicide rate is nearly identical); (1)
  -- 39% fewer law enforcement officers are shot to death; (2)
  -- the gun trafficking rate is cut nearly in half (48% lower); (3)


This legislation is supported by 81% of Vermonters, as well as 77% of Vermont gun owners (4). Moreover, two-thirds of likely voters in Vermont are MORE likely to vote for a candidate who supports universal background checks -- and I am one of them!  

Thank you!


Citations:
(1) Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Supplementary Homicide Reports, 2011, available at: www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACJD/studies/33527/version/1. Excludes New York due to incomplete data; Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Supplementary Homicide Report. 2010.

(2)  Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2001-11. Law enforcement killed with handguns that were not their own.

(3) Daniel Webster, Jon Vernick, & Maria Bulzacchelli, “Effects of State-Level Firearm Seller Accountability Policies on Firearm Trafficking,” Journal of Urban Health, July 2009. To gauge gun trafficking, the authors measured the ratio of likely trafficked guns recovered from crime scenes to the total of guns recovered. A “likely trafficked gun” was defined as having been recovered at a crime scene and not in the possession of its original purchaser within one year of its last legal sale.

(4) Lincoln Park Strategies Poll, April 26, 2014. Results at: www.gunsensevt.org/poll
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