Gun Review
An Updated Background Check System Will Help Prevent Gun Violence
Guns and Crime, 2012 Formed in 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a coalition of over 550 mayors who support reforms to fight illegal gun trafficking and gun violence in the United States, while still respecting the Second Amendment. The background check system designed by Congress in 1993 to prohibit dangerous people from purchasing guns is not working effectively. But with the enforcement of critical new regulations, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) could be an effective tool in preventing gun violence. One such regulation would require the names of all people known to be dangerous or criminal be registered in the NICS database, and those names should be referenced every time a gun is purchased. In 1968, assassins gunned down Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. In the wake of that double tragedy, Congress passed the first federal laws to limit access to guns, by prohibiting dangerous people, like felons, drug abusers, and the mentally ill from purchasing or possessing guns. In 1993, Congress passed the Brady Bill, named for President [Ronald] Reagan 's press secretary James Brady, who had been critically wounded in the assassination attempt on President Reagan. The Brady Bill created a system of background checks that helped to make real the purpose of the 1968 law.
The System Is Broken
Unfortunately, incomplete records and loopholes in the law have stopped background checks from doing their job: The Columbine [Colorado, April 20, 1999] killers got around the system by using guns bought at a gun show from an unlicensed seller: no paperwork, no questions asked. At Virginia Tech [Virginia, April 16, 2007], a killer got a gun he should have been prohibited from buying because his records were never reported to the FBI 's gun background check system. The shooter in Tucson [Arizona, January 8, 2011] also got a gun he should have been prohibited from buying
Guns and Crime, 2012 Formed in 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a coalition of over 550 mayors who support reforms to fight illegal gun trafficking and gun violence in the United States, while still respecting the Second Amendment. The background check system designed by Congress in 1993 to prohibit dangerous people from purchasing guns is not working effectively. But with the enforcement of critical new regulations, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) could be an effective tool in preventing gun violence. One such regulation would require the names of all people known to be dangerous or criminal be registered in the NICS database, and those names should be referenced every time a gun is purchased. In 1968, assassins gunned down Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. In the wake of that double tragedy, Congress passed the first federal laws to limit access to guns, by prohibiting dangerous people, like felons, drug abusers, and the mentally ill from purchasing or possessing guns. In 1993, Congress passed the Brady Bill, named for President [Ronald] Reagan 's press secretary James Brady, who had been critically wounded in the assassination attempt on President Reagan. The Brady Bill created a system of background checks that helped to make real the purpose of the 1968 law.
The System Is Broken
Unfortunately, incomplete records and loopholes in the law have stopped background checks from doing their job: The Columbine [Colorado, April 20, 1999] killers got around the system by using guns bought at a gun show from an unlicensed seller: no paperwork, no questions asked. At Virginia Tech [Virginia, April 16, 2007], a killer got a gun he should have been prohibited from buying because his records were never reported to the FBI 's gun background check system. The shooter in Tucson [Arizona, January 8, 2011] also got a gun he should have been prohibited from buying