Background checks proven to work but need strengthening

The urgency for gun law reform has reached a crescendo in the aftermath of the high-fatality mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Texas. The pressure to get something done on a national level has been building with the explosion of mass shootings and rise in gun violence since 2020. The last significant national laws to address gun violence were enacted nearly 30 years ago, when President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Act and the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994. Following the 2012 slaughter of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the Obama Administration attempted but failed to get Congress to pass a measure requiring all buyers, including those purchasing guns on the private market, to undergo a criminal background check. Since then, several activist groups have made it their core mission to accomplish this reform.

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Polls show that background check expansion is one of the most popular measures as 80 to over 90 percent of Americans, including most gun owners, support it. While it would be desirable to close the loophole allowing felons and other prohibited persons to buy a firearm on the private market and get around the background check, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has some serious flaws. These flaws have allowed the perpetrators of some of the deadliest mass shootings — in Buffalo, Parkland, Uvalde and Sutherland Springs, Texas — to pass the background check and buy their military-grade weapons despite disturbing behavior, statements, and social media postings.

In a typical background check, a gun dealer contacts the FBI or a state point of contact, several databases are searched in about two minutes, and if no matches are found to a criminal record or other disqualifying factor, the dealer may proceed with the transaction. There is no interview with law enforcement or reference checks that might reveal concerning behavior, instability, or threats that have not been reported. A major problem is that NICS relies on voluntary participation by the states and the states have been highly inconsistent in passing on criminal history, mental health, drug abuse, domestic violence, juvenile, and protective order records. Incomplete reporting of mental health and drug records has been especially problematic. Thus, the databases used in the background checks may lack critical information that would disqualify people unsuited for gun ownership.

America needs to establish the type of licensing system adopted by other advanced countries, in which a more thorough vetting of an individual’s history is undertaken before they can purchase a firearm. Countries with licensing systems have fewer gun-related fatalities and states with licensing laws have fewer mass shootings than states with weaker laws.

Also critical is action on the weapons that enable high-casualty mass shootings. The motives and reasons for mass shootings are varied: disputes, racism, misogyny, festering grievances, work-related issues, mental illness. Regardless of the motive, the common thread in all high-casualty shootings, is easy access to the military grade weapons that enable these slaughters. In a 2019 shooting in Dayton, Ohio, 26 people were shot in less than 30 seconds with an assault-style rifle fed by a magazine holding 100 rounds of ammunition. Even officers patrolling the area couldn’t intervene in time. These weapons need to be banned or more strictly regulated.

We have a once in a generation opportunity for bold action against gun violence. Let’s not settle for measures that will yield little in public safety so it can be said we achieved something. The political landscape is tough for action on weapons of war but it has been an equally tough slog to expand background checks. The worst-case scenario is to so water down the measures necessary to accommodate anticipated resistance that the solution adopted fails to save lives. Any action to solve the problem of mass shootings without addressing the proliferation of military grade weapons is an intentional evasion.

Thomas Gabor, a criminologist and sociologist, is author of five books on gun violence, including Carnage: Preventing Mass Shootings in America. He lives in Palm Beach County.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Background checks proven effective for gun safety but have loopholes