Congress to revisit background checks for gun buyers
Supporters of reform legislation hope it has a better likelihood of passing this year, with the change in congressional leadership and the tragedy at Virginia Tech.
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 23, 2007 edition
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NEW YORK - The Virginia Tech shooting has brought to light serious inadequacies in the nation's background-check system for gun purchases and has prompted renewed calls to fix it.
Many legal experts now agree that shooter Cho Seung-hui should not have been able to buy a gun at a federally licensed shop because in 2005 a judge had ruled that he was mentally ill and ordered him to seek treatment.
Federal law states that any person "adjudicated as a mental defective" is prohibited from buying firearms.
But Mr. Cho's name was not flagged by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) because his name wasn't in it. Virginia officials didn't report the judge's ruling on his mental illness to NICS: They were following a state law that says a person has to be committed to an institution before being prohibited from buying a gun.
Federal law-enforcement officials and gun-violence experts say such communication breakdowns, as well as a significant lack of federal resources to keep NICS current, have resulted in a background-check system that is incomplete, inaccurate, and out of date.
A bill to reform the system has stalled in Congress in the past few years. But its sponsors hope that this year, with the change in leadership and the tragedy in Virginia, the bill will have a better likelihood of passing.
"Our purpose is simply to see to it that if we have an instant background check, that it in fact works. There are significant problems with it, and not only in Virginia," says Rep. John Dingell (D) of Michigan, a former member of the National Rifle Association's board of directors. "We're not putting the money into it, the states aren't putting the effort into it, and there is neither the carrot nor the stick to the degree that there should be to require that the records be properly kept."
The Brady Bill, which became law in 1994, set up the NICS background-check system, which was implemented nationwide in 1998. It set up a database containing criminal histories, as well as a list of prohibited gun buyers – people like convicted felons and underage kids. States are supposed to send their criminal-history databases to the federal government regularly so they can be included in the NICS system. The Brady Bill also allows states to enact their own gun-control initiatives that expand the prohibited list and require things like waiting periods, as long as they meet the federal minimum as well.
But critics say the law is filled with loopholes. One of the biggest concerns is that the regulations apply only to federally licensed gun dealers. Individuals that sell guns privately or at gun shows don't have to do background checks. Between 40 to 50 percent of guns sold in the country annually are sold privately, according to federal estimates.
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