If you are a federally licensed dealer in firearms, you may recently have received a survey questionnaire from gun control supporter Dr. Garen Wintemute, of the University of California, Davis.
The survey asks dealers questions about their business, their reasons for being in the business, their support for gun control, and their customers.
Why is Dr.Wintemute sending the survey? Consider the source. Over the years, he has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from anti-gun organizations to conduct “studies” designed to promote gun control. Several of these so-called “studies” have tried to blame legal firearms dealers for the illegal use of guns, and proposed further restrictions on dealers' ability to conduct business. (You can see a list of past studies on his website, at
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/vprp/publications/.)
We recommend that you do not respond to the survey, for two reasons. First, many of the questions in the survey are written so that Dr. Wintemute will be able to claim that at least some dealers support one or another form of gun control, or that they report the occurrence of situations that, Dr. Wintemute will likely claim, prove the need for restrictions on dealers and their customers. Second, participating in the survey in any way would give Dr. Wintemute credibility in the eyes of the anti-gun organizations that fund his efforts, which would only increase his chance of obtaining more money for more anti-gun research.
