Legislation would require National Instant Criminal Background Check System check on every firearm transfer, including private transactions
Representatives Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) announced on Feb. 1 they would reintroduce the “Bipartisan Background Checks” bill. The bill is supported by more than 80 percent of voters, and Congress should act on it as soon as possible, Fitzpatrick said.
“The devastating trend of mass shootings by dangerous, unstable individuals who are already ineligible from possessing a gun demands cooperation from both sides of the aisle. This legislation meets that demand,” Fitzpatrick said during a press conference.
The bill would expand the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to include every firearm transfer. This would include private sales, loaning a firearm, or giving a gun as a gift. Any transfer would have to be handled by a federally licensed gun dealer who would perform the background check to ensure the parties could legally own a firearm.
He first introduced the bill after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. A gunman killed 28 people and wounded two others, including 20 children.
Fitzpatrick said background checks are an effective tool in keeping guns out of the hands of individuals who should not have them. He said the bill’s passage would make society safer and protect children.
“We have no higher calling, no higher responsibility than to protect our children,” Fitzpatrick said.
Thompson echoed Fitzpatrick’s sentiments. He said the fact that the bill has had bipartisan support indicates how popular the idea is with voters. Thompson said more than 80 percent of Americans support universal background checks, including 72 percent of NRA members.
He blamed politics for stopping the bill in previous legislative sessions.
“The only place in America where background checks are not bipartisan is a corner of the floor of the Senate,” Thompson said.
Representatives of several gun control organizations were also on hand for the event.
Keenon James is the Director of the Everytown Survivor Network for Everytown for Gun Safety. James, whose brother was shot and killed in 1993, said the bill would close “loopholes” in the law. He said the shooter in the 2015 mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, obtained his gun through such a loophole.
Checks Called ‘Common Sense’
James said he knows of at least one website that hosted 1.2 million ads for gun sales with no background checks.
“Background checks are common sense and Constitutional and should be the law of the land. For gun violence survivors like me, the fight is personal,” James said.
Christian Heyne, Vice President for Policy and Programs for Brady, formerly the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, told the gathering that, as a gun violence survivor, he was gratified to see the bill’s reintroduction.
“It’s important to see this kind of bipartisan support right out of the gate,” he said.
Heyne’s mother was shot and killed in 2005. He said the bill could prevent similar crimes.
Background Checks ‘Foundation of Gun Laws’
“The Brady background check system is the foundation upon which all other gun laws can work,” he said.
Aidan Johnston, Director for Federal Affairs for Gun Owners of America, said the NICS is dysfunctional and expanding it won’t make anyone safer.
“Given that the current commercial background check system falsely denies many law-abiding Americans their gun purchases every day and has been abused to create an illegal gun registry and more, it’s unthinkable to expand the system further. Gun Owners of America is completely opposed to this universal background check proposal,” Johnston wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
A National Rifle Association (NRA) spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. However, information from the NRA Institution for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) website provides some information.
According to the website, the Charleston shooter legally purchased his firearm two months before the shooting. The “loophole” referenced is a provision that allows a gun dealer to complete a purchase even if the customer’s background check has not been completed within three days. This is to prevent government agencies from dragging their feet on background checks.
The website references the case of a New Jersey woman who was killed by an ex-spouse 40 days after she had applied for a weapons permit that had not been approved.
Information from the website also points out that all commercial firearms transfers, including online and gun show sales, currently require a background check.