Phantom gun control claims over the holes in the NICS background check system

The claims that states aren't providing information to Federal government for some who are denied buying guns might just be made up claims.

Washington is one of 11 states that have energetically complied with a three-year-old federal statute requiring states to provide the National Instant Check System (NICS) with the names of people who are mentally ill and thus disqualified from purchasing firearms.

Several other states have at least partly complied with the requirement, according to a review by the Associated Press, but more than half of the states – and there are some surprises on the list – have not complied and nine of those states have provided no information at all.

Buried in the text of the Associated Press story is this notation: “gun control groups have estimated more than 1 million files are missing nationwide.” There is no attribution, and no elaboration. The story does not say which groups believe this, or why. There is no reference at all.

This is how myths are created, much like the demonstrably false assertion that 80 percent of the guns (or whatever figure someone decides to use) recovered in Mexico’s drug war are being traced back to the United States. . . .