The Gun Debate 1 Year After Newtown: Assessing Six Key Claims About Gun Background Checks

The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, reignited the debate on whether to strengthen federal and state gun laws. Soon after the massacre, the top priority for advocates for stronger gun laws became broadening background checks to apply to all gun sales. Under current federal law, vendors in the business of selling guns must get a license, conduct background checks, and keep records. But unlicensed "private" sellers -- persons who maintain they sell only occasionally at gun shows, online, or anywhere else -- are able to sell guns with no questions asked. In some ways, the debate's emphasis on the universal background checks proposal was surprising -- after all, the Newtown shooter would not have been subject to federal prohibitions, other than the one that blocks handgun sales to persons under 21, and background checks were only tangentially related to the shooting. The ascendance of background checks as the primary policy proposal to combat gunviolence reflects a shift in gun-reform advocates' strategy from tightening regulations on guns themselves to strengthening laws that keep guns away from dangerous people. The shift had already begun before Newtown; after, it only accelerated.Both policy research and political realities informed this shift in priorities. As a policy matter, most research suggests that making it more difficult for dangerous people to acquire guns will have a significant impact in reducing the more than 30,000 gun deaths that happen every year in America. As a political matter, polling conducted before and after Newtown show that 80 percent to 90 percent of Americans support expanding background checks, including most gun owners.As the debate over the universal background checks proposal heated up before the Senate voted on the matter in April, discussion of the substantive benefits of this policy proposal was mostly lost in the fray. The background checks debate far too often devolved into sound bites, which gave rise to a number of widespread misunderstandings about the universal background checks proposal and its potential effects on gun violence in the United States.In this issue brief, we assess six key claims that have been made about background checks in the past year

No Questions Asked: Background Checks, Gun Shows, and Crime

The report, titled "No Questions Asked: Background Checks, Gun Shows and Crime," finds that criminals in the 18 states that require gun show background checks are getting thousands of guns each year from states without such checks.In addition, the report finds that "requiring background checks at gun shows will not affect the millions of enthusiasts who attend gun shows each year, but is clearly an essential part of a comprehensive strategy to make it harder for criminals to get guns.""This report shows conclusively that gun shows without background checks have become firearms convenience stores for criminals -- it's cash and carry, with no questions asked," said AGS Foundation President Jonathan Cowan. "This report also shows that background checks won't stop any of the 4,500 gun shows held each year, or restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens to buy guns." The study combines information from a broad range of organizations to get the best picture yet available of the effects of the gun show loophole. The information comes from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; reports issued by the U.S. Departments of Treasury, Justice and the General Accounting Office; news reports; gun show publications; and data from Internet sites of the National Rifle Association and the National Association of Arms Shows.The gun show loophole refers to the ability of participants at gun shows to sell firearms without conducting the background checks that licensed gun dealers are required to make under the Brady Law. An unlicensed seller is anyone who does not have a federal firearms license or does not sell for business. There is no limit on the number of guns an unlicensed seller may sell.Criminal background checks for gun purchasers are virtually instant: 72% are completed within several minutes, 95% within two hours, and only one in 30 lasts more than a day. The length of background checks is legally limited to three business days. The checks that take more than twenty-four hours are 20 times more likely to uncover a prohibited buyer than those completed within two hours, because when a check turns up a felony arrest it takes time to determine if the person was actually convicted of the crime. A felony conviction is the most common reason that a potential buyer is denied a handgun

What a Difference a Law Makes: Online Gun Sales in States With and Without Background Checks

It is estimated that today there are about 4,000 websites dedicated to facilitating gun sales between private individuals. One of the largest of these sites -- Armslist.com -- essentially serves as an eHarmony or Craigslist for gun sales, connecting gun buyers and sellers in each of the 50 states. Buyers can search for-sale listings or want ads within their state or city, locate unlicensed sellers or buyers, and arrange to meet up in person to purchase guns. As long as the gun doesn't cross state lines or travel through the U.S. Postal System, 34 states allow these sales between strangers to take place unregulated and without criminal background checks. By contrast, 16 states require background checks for gun sales between private, unlicensed individuals like the stranger-to-stranger sales promoted on Armslist.com.In this study, we sought to determine if these laws make a difference. In particular, are there fewer online sales in states that require background checks compared to states that don't? Based on our survey of more than 90,000 online firearm listings, we conclude that online private sales are far more prevalent in states that do not require criminal background checks than among states that do. We recommend that states and Congress enact laws to require checks for these private sales and that gun safety organizations encourage private sellers to always use background checks when selling their firearms

UAPPM Policy 3280: Background Checks

The university\u27s policy on background checks as it appears in the UAPPM

Expanding Brady Background Checks To Internet Gun Sales In Oregon: Why Brady Background Checks Work And Why It's Time For Oregon To Finish The Job

A new Brady report shows how dangerous loopholes allow criminals to buy guns easily online without a background check. This report demonstrates why Brady background checks on gun purchases are an effective policy that prevents gun crime and saves lives by keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people prohibited from owning guns. It also makes the case for why Oregon needs to pass legislation to close the "Internet loophole" by expanding Brady background checks to all gun sales. Every year, gun violence kills more than 400 Oregonians. From 2004 to 2013, more than 4,000 people were killed with guns. This means that, on average, somebody is killed in Oregon with a gun every 21 hours

Felon Seeks Firearm, No Strings Attached: How Dangerous People Evade Background Checks and Buy Illegal Guns Online

The online marketplace for guns is vast -- and growing. Each year, millions of people connect through online ads to buy and sell firearms. And because many of the transactions are conducted by so-called 'private sellers' who are not required by federal law to conduct background checks, guns routinely change hands with no questions asked. In the digital age, convicted felons, domestic abusers and other dangerous people who are legally barred from buying guns can do so online with little more than a phone number or email address. And they do. Countless tragedies have demonstrated that determined criminals are exploiting this 'private sale loophole' to acquire guns online and murder innocent peopleThe National Rifle Association, which once supported the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), has recently opposed efforts to close this growing loophole. One argument often recurs: criminals won't submit to background checks.This report demonstrates that their claim is both false and true. Criminals undeniably do submit to background checks: in 2010 alone, federal and state checks blocked more than 150,000 gun sales to prohibited buyers. But criminals also undeniably avoid background checks -- by exploiting the private sale loophole. Indeed, one measure of NICS's success is that it appears to have forced a growing number of criminals to seek out private sellers since the system was established in 1998

DOC 2006-12 Faculty Background Checks

Official, approved document of the Academic Senate of the University of Dayton. This document was originally classified as DOC I-06-12