AZ FACT CHECK

President Obama made this claim as he announced new executive actions on gun control. His actions include the hiring of more FBI agents to run the criminal background check system and clarifying that gun purchases made over the Internet are subject to a background check.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a branch of gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, published in 2013 the study Obama referenced.

According to the study, one in 30 prospective gun buyers on Armslist.com, a Craigslist-type site for gun sales, had felony or domestic-abuse-related convictions that would bar them from buying a gun. These people would, however, be able to purchase firearms from private sellers because background checks are not required for such sales in many states.

The study authors analyzed more than 13,000 “want to buy” ads on Armslist and matched the potential buyers’ contact information with criminal records. The would-be buyers were a small subset (5 percent) of the total number of postings on the site, according to the study. The majority of postings were for the sale of firearms, which prospective buyers can inquire about and purchase anonymously.

Of the 13,000 records, the study was able to link 607 to people living in the state where the ad was placed – which was needed to evaluate whether the potential buyer had a criminal record.

Of the 607, only 20 had criminal records, which is where the one-in-30 statistic comes from.

That means the ratio cited by Obama reflected 0.2 percent of the total postings on the site.

A small sample size can undercut a study’s validity, but the study’s authors claim their one-in-30 figure vastly understates the number of criminals who exploit the “private sale loophole.” Their reasoning is that people with criminal records are more likely to avoid posting contact information on a want-to-buy ad.

Davidson College philosophy professor Lance Stell, who has authored papers on gun-control policy, told AZ Fact Check that the so-called loophole doesn’t make it legal for a prohibited person to purchase a firearm.

Regarding the sample size, Ted Al-

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THE FINDING: No stars. Inconclusive. AZ Fact Check examines the statements of politicians, partisan groups and government agencies. Submit claims we should check by using our azfact check .azcentral.com form or the AZ Fact Check mobile app available in the iTunes Store. Michael Squires, government and politics editor, oversees AZ Fact Check. E-mail him at michael.squires@arizonarepublic.com and follow him on Twitter at @mgsquires. corn, research director of Everytown for Gun Safety, told AZ Fact Check that a sample size of 607 is actually quite large for such studies. He cited a study from the Center for Gun Policy that used a sample size of 253 to determine the legal status and source of offenders’ firearms in states with less-stringent criteria for gun ownership.

Everytown’s study recommendations include expanded background checks for online sales, enhanced enforcement of gun-safety laws and tougher protocols for websites like Armslist.

There is no evidence that the study was peer-reviewed. Physician and author of “Bad Science” Ben Goldacre told AZ Fact Check that peer review means the study has been submitted to an academic journal and been vetted by experts.

The study was not published in an academic journal, but Alcorn said he works with a team of lawyers, private investigators and developers and that their publications are reviewed by numerous staff members prior to release.

“We also routinely consult with outside criminologists, public-health scientists and law enforcement concurrent with our investigation, and to review our final publications,” Alcorn said.

Political science researcher David Koppel, a gun-rights activist and attorney, said it is impossible to determine the validity of the report because Everytown doesn’t make necessary information available.

“Of these alleged 20 people, they provide information (on) only five,” he told AZ Fact Check. “Everytown claims that ‘many’ of the 20 people had ‘lengthy criminal histories that included recent violent crimes.’ But Everytown does not say how ‘many’ there were.”

The second part of Obama’s statement — that these are “individuals convicted of serious crimes” — mostly checks out, although it’s important to note the report only specified that those included in the one-in-30 number had either a felony conviction or domesticabuse record that would cause them to fail a background check.

There is no breakdown of the number or type of convictions the prospective buyers had, making it unclear how many were convicted of the crimes Obama states.

It is also important to note that some states, including Arizona, have statutes that classify some non-violent offenses, including drug possession, as felonies, meaning those people would also fail federal background checks to purchase a gun.

States can pass law barring certain offenders from purchasing guns which either match or go beyond federal law.

Obama correctly cites statistics from the study conducted by a branch of Everytown, a gun-control advocacy group. And the study did show that one in 30 of the people whose contact information could be derived from want-to-buy ads had felony or domestic-abuse convictions that would cause them to fail a background check. But issues with the study, including a small sample size, the partisan source of the study and apparent absence of an official peer review, make it unclear what conclusions can be drawn from the report.

sive.

No stars: Inconclu-

President Barack Obama’s remarks on gun control; www.whi tehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/ 05/remarks-president-common-sensegun-safety-reform “Felon Seeks Firearm, No Strings Attached: How Dangerous People Evade Background Checks and Buy Illegal Guns Online,” Mayors Against Illegal Guns; everytownre search.org/reports/felon-seeks-fire arm-no-strings-attached/ “Legal status and source of offenders’ firearms in states with the least stringent criteria for gun ownership,” Center for Gun Policy and Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22 729164 “SELECTED FIREARMS OFFENSES — ‘CHEAT SHEET,’” Federal Public Defender - District of Nebraska ne.fd.org/publications/firearms_cheat sheet.pdf