I think this fits under general discussion as it is not a rant. I personally put this information together and I hope you will either give it constructive criticism or pass it along to your friends.

The media and anti's have made some pretty bold claims about the correlation of stricter gun laws and public safety. Stressing that individual rights should be regulated for the greater good.
There have been 191,032,240 NICS background checks since Nov 30th 1998 (when the Brady act formed the database).

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics

As of July 4th 2013 the US population was 316,148,990.

Of the total most recent census, the population of +18 is 209,128,094 making up 74.3% of the total US population.

http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/dat ... aphic.html

Time for some math skills.

The total number of NICS background checks divided by the total population of +18 citizens (meaning they can own and purchase firearms legally) is 91.35%.

Understanding this: this shows that if everyone +18 owned a gun and each check was for a single firearm purchase, a resounding 91.35% of the population would be armed.

Some argue that kids younger than 18 should count as they are trained as young as 8 to 12 for competition shooting. Some also argue that some of those checks were for multiple purchases at one time. Taking that into consideration I think that it is reasonable to assume the number of guns/person would be even higher (since one check could be for more than one gun).

There have been just over 1 million illegal purchases blocked. That is still 90.87% of the population of +18 armed if each NICs check was for one firearm.

Of those denials 56.70% were for people convicted of crimes punishable by 1 or more years in prison, or misdemeanors punishable by 2 or more years in prison.

Of those 1 million denials, 24% (total) were for domestic violence, adjucated mental health, restraining orders, fugitives from the law, or criminal drug behavior.

These are all total percents based off of the denials since Nov 30 1998, almost 16 years total.

That means that of the more than 191 million NICs checks, less than .5% were blocked and of that .5% only a quarter were for criminal violence. Nearly 50% of the blocked NICs checks were for crimes and misdemeanors with sentences of 1 year or 2 years respectively.

Still think we need more background checks and that the "vast majority of gun owners are irresponsible"? How about, "more guns equal more death"? Me neither.

but we do it for the children like treydog mar'in and millions of obamas other, life turning around, children.

in other words, we do it for the uneducated, ignorant masses that they know will vote for them and the feelgood, knee jerking laws based on fear and emotional reactions.

Your math assumes that these people were convicted of non-violent crimes. Is that really true? Or are these crimes a mix of violent and non-violent?

Also, you need to figure out how many 18+ people have lived here since 1998, not just how many live here now.

I know this won't change the numbers much, or your conclusion.