Buying guns can be an ordeal

If Congress were to pass a law that required voters to get permission, in writing, from government before going to the polls, citizens likely would be up in arms, at least figuratively speaking. For some, figuratively might be the only way they could take up arms against injustice. Since the Brady Firearms Act required prospective gun buyers to pass a National Instant Check System background check before they were allowed to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer, almost 1.8 million people have been denied. That’s not to say they were all criminals looking to buy a gun for their next robbery. (Some undoubtedly were; genius-level criminal masterminds are not nearly as common in real life as they are in fiction.) But if statistics from 2008 are any indication, an NCIS denial isn’t proof-positive that one is a criminal, a fugitive or anyone else legally barred from owning a firearm. According to The New Gun Week, a publication of the Second Amendment Foundation, a new Bureau of Justice Statistics report says that last year 147,000 people were turned down for a variety of reasons. Of those, 28,000 appealed their denials; 11,000 of them were overturned, allowing those law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights. That’s a pretty slipshod system...OdessaAmerican