National Instant Social Background Check System

The millennial generation has the displeasure of being alive in a culture where people use dangerous weapons to commit horrible crimes. On December 14th, 2012 someone walked into Sandy Hook Elementary school and open fire on children and adults taking 26 lives (Weekend Edition Saturday). On July 20th, 2012 a gunman in Denver Colorado, open fired on a crowded movie theater killing 12 and wounding 58. On January 8th, 2011 six people laid dead in the parking lot of a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona. All were victims of gun violence. All of these men should of been forbidden to obtain firearms under the Brady Bill passed in 1993. Mr. President, I ask that you consider funding an updated background check system that will save American lives.

In 1993 Congress developed a background system that they called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS for short.

The NICS is designed to prohibit people from purchasing firearms who are felons, drug abusers, or mentally ill. The problem with this is that the NICS is literally missing millions of records. “Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with guns, and most of them are possessed illegally” (Guns and Violence). The NICS is still in effect today, however, the numerous horrific acts in the news are proof that the system is not working. The FBI is in control of the NICS so whenever someone is convicted of a crime, ideally, their legal records would be sent directly to the FBI who would document it properly and prevent further gun violence. There are several ways that a criminal could evade the system. As in the case of the Navy yard shooting of 2013, the perpetrator could be a criminal whose records simply never got sent to the FBI to be included in the

NICS.
40% of guns bought in the United Statesare bought without the use of background checks (The White House). Currently, only certified gun dealers are required to use background checks while dealers that don’t hold certification are not required to. Let’s imagine there is a man named Chad who lives in California, and Chad is a dangerous felon who wants to use a weapon for malicious purposes. California has a unique background check system that requires all sales of firearms to require background checks (Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence). However, if Chad did in fact desire a firearm he could travel to a different state and buy a firearm from a gun show without the use of a background check. Chad could then travel back to his home state and use this firearm in a horrendous act. This was the process that students at Columbine High School went through to purchase guns to massacre 13 people on April 20th, 1999. This example explains why background checks simply cannot be a state level decision, it has to be a national level decision.
Implementing an effective background check system can be simplified down to two steps: first create a list of people who are unfit to own firearms, and second don’t allow people to purchase firearms that are on said list.

The former begins on the law enforcement end. Anyone who has a felony, their name should be sent to the FBI to be placed on the NICS database. This would mean holding law enforcement professionals accountable to reporting. Currently, there is no punishment for law enforcement that fail to send these records. The later is where a lot of federal funding could potentially be needed. This would involve every gun seller to abide by this background check system. Updating and using such a system on a national level will require much needed additional

funding.
There are several loopholes that would still have to be worked out before all dealers would be required to use background checks. For example, what happens to someone who inherits a gun through a will? Will this hinder the process that law enforcement personnel go through to obtain the firearms for their jobs? Would it be legal to lend someone a gun without having to give them a background check? The point is, that even the best background check system cannot prevent all crimes.
As a nation, a critical part of our Bill of Rights gives us the right to bear arms, and background checks would not be infringing on this. A background check system might allow for loopholes or for dangerous crimes to continue, but to quote President Obama, “ If there is even one thing that we can do to prevent any of these events, we have a deep obligation, all of us, to try” (The White House). I offer the similar question, if we knew somethings had the potential to save American lives, would we not at least try?