Privacy

The Associated Press story, Background checks on the rise, takes a look at the dramatic increase in background checks starting with the federal government ones.

Already this year, 25 million Americans have had background checks by the federal government, a number that’s risen every year since the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Amid the rise, a notable shift has occurred: More civilians are now checked each year than criminals. And checks on the vast majority come back clean, even as states allot more money for their growing screening operations.

The article is a hodge-podge with an agenda. The article skips from talking about federal background checks to those done by school systems to background checking by churches.

The use of statistics is fast and loose. For example, the writer tells us that “a recent search of state-by-state records found 2,570 incidents of sexual misconduct in public schools between 2001 and 2005, despite background checks of teachers being required in many states.”

Sounds ominous. There are all those offenses happening despite background checks.

But the statistic used doesn’t support that. It’s meaningless because the relevant measure is not the number of incidents but the number of offenders. And it’s irresponsible because the only way to judge […]