AC

As the debate over gun laws rages anew in the wake of last Friday's horrific shooting in Aurora, Co., advocates for stricter legislation say there's one major question mark in the debate: No one knows exactly how many firearms are sold in America. While the ATF compiles detailed statistics on gun sales, the information is delayed by over a year to comply with federal trade secrets law. For more current information, both firearm trade groups and advocacy organizations typically rely on the number of background checks that the FBI runs on prospective buyers each month, even as they agree this measure is imprecise. These checks are conducted on purchasers buying from federally licensed vendors, but do not fully capture private sales—the so-called " gun show loophole." The number of background checks related to handguns, rifles, shotguns and other "long guns" has risen steadily in the past two years, a fact that trade groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation ...