Utah Shooting Sports Council
Protecting Safe and Legal Gun Ownership and Use
P.O. Box 1975
Layton, UT 84041-6975
Copyright 1999-2000 by Utah Shooting Sports Council. All rights reserved.

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Firearms FACTS-
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Effectiveness of “Brady Checks” on Gun Purchases in Utah

As of the end of 1999, the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification reported the following results of background checks on prospective gun purchasers using Utah’s “Instant Check” system.
Note: Checks prior to December 1998 were on handguns only, since then on all firearms.
Year Total Denied Denial % Reason-
(Felony
conviction) Reason-
(Domestic
Violence) Reason-
(Warrant) Reason-
(Protective
Order)
1998 ??????? 995 333 159 348 154
1999 ??????? 2,159 717 355 711 270

Source: Utah Department of Public Safety Letter of January 5, 2000

As far as we can determine, NOT A SINGLE person was charged or convicted of the felony offense of a prohibited person attempting to purchase a firearm. ZERO prosecutions despite having an eyewitness, a false document in the culprit’s own handwritiing with their signature and a known resident address verified by two forms of ID.

Where are purchases being made? (May 1998)
Salt Lake County 45%
Utah County 16%
Weber County 11%
Washington County 6%
Davis County 5%
Cache County 3%
Uintah County 3%

(All other counties are under 2% each)

Source: Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification Brady Handgun Report, May 1998.

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Some Questions:

You might want to ask how many Federal Prosecutions there have been in Utah for violation of the Brady Act which makes it illegal for a prohibited person to ATTEMPT to purchase a firearm- As far as we can find out there have been NONE! ZERO! NADA! ZIP!
How much would other crimes have dropped if all those prohibited persons had been prosecuted and imprisoned for this very easy to prove offense?
Do you really believe that these prohibited people merely said “Gee, thanks, I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to have a gun” and decided not to get one after all? Or did they steal one somewhere, or get one from a drug dealer or illegal alien smuggler? Do we need more gun laws, or merely better enforcement of the ones already on the books?