Senate's new gun law reuses old ideas and stops short on background checks

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Legislation adds accountability measures for entering proper records into the background check system – which was already a requirement passed in 2008

Senate's new gun law reuses old ideas and stops short on background checks

Lois Beckett in New York and Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington
Thursday 16 November 2017 10.57 EST
Last modified on Thursday 16 November 2017 10.59 EST

Ten years ago, after a mass shooting that could have been prevented, Congress passed a bipartisan law to fix the nation’s gun background check system. A decade later, a bipartisan group of senators is introducing new legislation to try to fix it again.

The gun legislation the senators announced this morning would not require a background check on every single gun sale, despite new polling data showing that 95% of Americans – a record high – support these universal background checks.

Instead, the compromise legislation would simply add new accountability measures to make sure that states and federal agencies are entering the proper records into the background check system.

For years, the federal database that is supposed to stop dangerous people from buying guns has been undermined by missing records. At least three of America’s most high-profile mass shooters were legally barred from buying guns, but were able to purchase them anyway because of the federal system’s failures. Among them was the gunman who murdered 26 people in a Texas church this month.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/16/senates-new-gun-law-reuses-old-ideas-and-stops-short-on-background-checks

[The Mouth]

1. Crazy people and bad folks shouldn't have guns.

I think even the most stringently RKBA folks have no problem with this; and anyone who does probably falls into the categories themselves. People who have used violence against other humans or animals (in anything other than self defense), have restraining orders on them or diagnosed with mental disabilities affecting decision making capability simply should not have access to firearms of any sort.

[ManiacJoe]

2. Entering correct data into the data-driven system is always a good thing.

A great first step to improving the USE of the background checks would be to remove the federal prohibition on private sellers using the NICS system that the dealers are required to use.