Background Checks
Over the past 50 years, our nation has suffered through a series of gun assassinations and mass shootings. But even more shocking is the building toll of everyday Americans who are gunned down in big cities and small towns. It’s time for common sense reforms to Fix Gun Checks and stem the tide of gun murders that leaves 34 Americans dead every day.
The Solution -- Common Sense Steps for a Safer America
Our leaders must make it a national priority to fix gun background checks. This will take two critical steps:
- Get all of the names of people who should be prohibited from buying guns into the background check system.
- Require a background check for every gun sale in America.
Step One: Get all of the names of people who should be prohibited from buying guns into the background check system.
- The Virginia Tech shooter was able to pass a background check and purchase a gun despite a long history of mental illness, including a court ruling that he was mentally ill and an "imminent danger." His record was never entered into the background check database.
- Since Virginia Tech, Congress passed a law to improve reporting of mental health records. But today, 10 states have not contributed a single mental health record and 18 states have contributed records on fewer than 100 people.
- According to media reports, the Tucson shooter had a drug arrest on his record and may have admitted to the U.S. Army that he was a habitual drug user – red flags that should have barred him from buying a gun. Nevertheless, he went on to pass background checks and buy the Glock 19 he used to kill 6 people and injure 13 others.
To ensure that every prohibited person is added to the national background check system, our leaders in Congress should:
- Guarantee full funding for states to update their information-sharing efforts
- Crack down on federal agencies that fail to submit records
- Penalize states that fail to add records by cutting their federal funding
- Clarify the rules for adding drug abusers and the mentally ill to the database
Step Two: Congress must close all the loopholes and require a background check on all gun sales in America.
- Even if a dangerous individual failed a background check, they can walk into any gun show and buy a trunk load of guns with no background check, no questions asked. That’s because only licensed gun dealers are required to conduct background checks. Occasional sellers, who often sell guns at gun shows, don’t have to do background checks.
- 30% of illegally trafficked guns are connected to gun shows.
- This loophole has been exploited by terrorists, drug cartels, and murderers, including the shooters at Columbine High School, whose guns were purchased from an unlicensed seller at a gun show.
Every handgun sale should come with a background check:
- People who want to sell their guns can take them to a licensed dealer who will conduct the background check.
- There should be reasonable exemptions for transfers to immediate family members, law enforcement, inheritance, and holders of gun permits that meet certain requirements.
Download the Mayors' Plan to Fix Gun Checks (PDF)
The Consensus -- Public Support for the Plan to Fix Gun Checks
- Americans overwhelmingly believe that criminals, drug abusers, and the mentally ill should not have access to guns: 9 out of 10 Americans and 9 out of 10 gun owners support fixing gaps in the background check databases that are meant to stop dangerous people from getting their hands on guns.
- Americans overwhelmingly believe that more needs to be done to ensure records in the background check system are complete: 89% of Americans and 89% of gun owners support full funding of the post-Virginia Tech law designed to put more records in the background check database.
- Americans overwhelmingly believe it’s time to close the loopholes that let people buy guns with no background check: 86% of Americans and 81% of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun and no matter who they buy it from.
The bipartisan poll was conducted jointly by Momentum Analysis, a polling firm with Democratic clients, and American Viewpoint, a polling firm with Republican clients between January 11 and January 13, 2011. Full results of the poll available here (PDF).
A Tragic History
Forty-three years ago, assassins gunned down Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
In the wake of that double tragedy, Congress passed a law based on a simple idea:
Prohibit gun possession by dangerous people, including criminals, drug abusers, and the mentally ill.
After President Ronald Reagan and his press secretary James Brady were shot in 1981, a movement formed that culminated in the passage of the Brady Bill in 1993, which created a national background system to prevent dangerous people from buying guns.
But more than 400,000 people have been murdered with guns in the U.S. since 1968.
Time and time again, our system lets dangerous people slip through the cracks. The Columbine killers’ guns were purchased from an unlicensed seller at a gun show, no paperwork, no questions asked. At Virginia Tech, a mentally ill killer got a gun because his records weren't in the background checks system. The same thing happened with the shooter in Tucson.
The time has come to fix our gun background check system and prevent more senseless shootings. Please act now by signing the petition and spreading the word to your friends and family.
Download the Mayors' Plan to Fix Gun Checks (PDF)
I am joining more than 600 U.S. Mayors in calling on members of Congress to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people by taking two critical steps:
1) Get all the names of people who should be prohibited from buying guns into the background check system.
2) Require a background check for every gun sale in America.
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info[at]mayorsagainstillegalguns.org
