Background Checks on Private Sales Gun violence affects a tremendous amount of individuals throughout the United States. Everyday a crime is committed with the use of a gun, most of which are obtained legally. With background checks on privately sold firearms these rates would decrease, due to the fact that it would deny convicted felons, or under age people from purchasing a life threatening weapon that could be used to commit further crimes. However, it is true that sometimes background checks do not catch everything and can lead to a gun in the hands of the wrong person. For example, "Seung Hui Cho passed several background checks to purchase the guns he used to kill 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech University in 2007, despite …show more content…
"Months before the attack, he tried to buy a gun in California but was denied, after a background check showed he had a documented history of mental illness. So instead Bedell decided to just go to,” neighboring Nevada, where gun laws are more lenient, and bought a 9mm handgun from a private seller who didn 't have to check out his history"(Kirkham). From this, it is evident that there is a very serious loophole in the United States gun regulations. "Nearly 40 percent of gun transactions in America occur through so-called "private party" sales, creating a secondary firearms market that is largely invisible", (Kirkham)."Fixing this would be one of the single most important things we could do to address overall gun violence," said David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of criminal justice in New York (Kirkham). With this being said it is evident that the United States needs to strengthen background check laws throughout the country. If a person can just go to a different state to purchase a weapon that they were prohibited from buying in another state then what is the point of a background check at all. For the background check system to work all states need to have the same laws regarding the
Right now, the U.S. has a National Instant Background Check System; however, it contains many flaws. This system is meant to act as a filter to stop the wrong people from having guns. In 2007, the Bipartisan legislation was passed to strengthen this system. It relies on data supplied by the states, but the data is often incomplete and inadequate (Merino 104). Unlicensed gun sellers have also created a dangerous loophole. The law makes an exception for gun sellers who aren’t federally licensed gun dealers. These sellers sell guns informally through venues such as gun shows, and are not required to run background checks. This is a dangerous loophole where people who should not have guns can get them (“Gun”). Senator Frank R. Lautenberg once stated, commenting on the gun sh...
Violence and crimes are growing in number and affecting American society. By reinforcing background checks we could reduce crimes and limit easy gun access to mentally ill people. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a database where the names of people that have committed a misdemeanor, are mentally ill or drug abusers is kept to prevent them from attaining guns. Most criminals buy guns from unlicensed sellers at gun shows that don’t do properly background checks through the NICS, making it easier from criminals to purchase firearms. Another problem is missing records or information that was not reported to the background check system. Better background checks could reduce crime and gun violence in America.
The first gun buyback program was employed in Baltimore in 1977 to curb violence perpetrated by the use of firearms (Carter, 2002). Over the course of three-months, over 13,000 firearms we...
The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, but only in cases of self-defense and hunting for food. However, the use of guns has drastically changed since 1791 when the amendment was implemented. Today, guns are not solely used in their intended ways. Since 2010, over eighty-seven school shootings have occurred within American grade schools, high schools, and universities, resulting in approximately 107 injuries and 109 murders of innocent students. The two most deadly shootings in the world occurred in the United States: the Virginia Tech University Massacre which left thirty-two dead and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting which left twenty-eight dead. Each new shooting prompts a debate about gun control laws and leaves citizens wondering about the accessibility of guns; any United States citizen over the age of twenty-one that does not have any previous felonies is able to easily receive a gun license. Forty-nine out of the sixty-one school shootings that occurred between 1982 and 2012 legally obtained firearms. The statistics become even more outstanding: seventy nine percent of all shooters have been diagnosed with a mental illness or disability, including the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook shooters, Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. Cho and Lanza were diagnosed with mental illnesses and disabilities, depression and autism, respectively. Even so, they were still able to acquire the guns they needed because extensive mental health background checks did not and still do not exist; Cho purchased his own weapon and Lanza stole his mother’s guns. Although the case studies of Lanza and Cho are only two out of the many school shootings, they should be considered prime examples to illustrate the necessity to add stri...
There are many good people out there, and sometimes they are to good. In some circumstances, someone might buy a firearm and a relative that did not meet the qualifications to obtain a firearm just ask to use it to go hunting. Something that simple as a family member asking to try out another qualified family members firearms can put many lives in danger. Many people will not think a family member would be capable of taking a life or their own and that trust is what put many others lives in danger. Another reason as to why a family background check needs to be enforced is what if the person that obtains the firearm lives in the home with a known criminal? In a short reading from the “American Now” book a short article By James Stancliffe called Guns Act As a Force Multiplier endangering everyone he states that his “main issue with guns is that they act as a force multiplier”, and this is true if falling into the wrong hands. By giving someone with a criminal family member access to a firearm is just like giving that known criminal access to that firearm also. One last reason a family background check needs to be enforced is if there are children in the house. If there are children in the home further precautions need to be enforced, like a lock box with a key in a high area in a low traffic room . Children do not know the dangers of a
One way gun control advocates have tried to reduce the number of guns being issued to citizens of the United States of America is to require background checks. Background checks are performed on some weapons but they want a full background check for felonies, mental issues, proper classes, safety precautions to name a few. Background checks would make sure that if you have any type of police record you will be given a second look and make sure that you are fit to own a gun. (Asa Best) If you have a record this does not mean that you will not be able to own a gun it may just mean that your ch...
In recent years the school shooting activity shows alarming rates. As reported by Duplechain and Morris (2014), more than 350 documented school shootings happened from 1760 until 2014, from those 190 happened from 1990-2014 alone. The numbers are staggering and even more staggering is to find out some of the details of those shootings. School shootings perpetrated by underage people even a student from the school that completed their killing rampage committing suicide. Although, it might seem that the problem comes from the accessibility to guns people could have, the reality is different. In most cases mental instability can play as a key element, while bullying and media coverage can also act as important factors. This paper will explore some of reasons behind school shooters from the past, and it will demonstrate how accessibility to guns had nothing to do with the outcome of their behavior, by responding to the following questions.
We need to continue creating new legislation to regulate gun laws. As previously pointed out, there are loopholes in our current set of laws that allow for people to bypass the background check system completely at times. We first must look into ways of upgrading our current existing laws to ensure problems like this don’t keep happening. After that, as has been discussed earlier and seen in other countries around the world, we must continue to pass gun legislation laws because it will help to reduce overall violent crimes in the country.
Dylann Roof, the gunmen who murdered nine people in a Charleston South Carolina church, should never have been able to purchase a firearm. James Comey, the Director of the F.B.I., states that paperwork issues between federal and local levels allowed Dylann to purchase a handgun weeks before the tragedy occurred. The reason he was prohibited from purchasing a firearm was because Dylann had admitted to possessing a controlled substance after an earlier arrest. This should have denied him the right to purchase a firearm due to him being an unlawful drug user or addict. (Johnson, Carrie. "FBI Says Background Check Error Let Charleston Shooting Suspect Buy Gun." NPR. N.p., 10 July 2015. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. .) The idea of stepping up background checks is well founded, as it would require a much more stringent process to verify a person 's eligibility to own a firearm. However, this enters the wonderful realm of who says what, and who actually gets a say in the matter. The Social Security Administration recently considered adding those collecting disability but with another person managing their finances to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database. Just having their name in the system effectively prohibiting them from owning or purchasing firearms because they have someone else managing their finances. Makes sense right? If someone can’t access a
It is also a belief that requiring background checks for individuals purchasing weapons at gun shows will stop criminals from possessing guns. This is another misconception. There are over 240 million guns in America. Over 40 percent of all homes in the United States have guns. (Cannon) It would be impossible to enforce any type of legislation to control all of these guns. (Barone) Criminals will be able to obtain guns regardless of any new legislation that is enacted. An example of one of these new laws is the "one gun a month law" that is being introduced in Congress. (Bai 30) Supporters of this law want to make it so no one can purchase more than one gun a month. The intention is that criminals will not be able to go out and buy a bunch of weapons at once and commit a crime. This is ludicrous. The children that committed the high school shootings, and many other crimes that involve guns, were committed with guns that were obtained illegally. (Cloud 35) The only people that will suffer from the "one gun a month law" are the gun manufactures. (Bai 30) This is a bill that is designed to slow their sales and to hurt them financially.
Some people suggest making a longer waiting-period and deeper background check to purchase a gun would reduce the amount of violence with guns. While once again that wo...
In the United States, in order for people to legally carry guns, individuals have to pass through background checks but the background checks are failing because some individuals are bringing guns illegally to the state. In Nicholas Kristof article “Some Inconvenient Gun Facts for Liberals” gave some suggestions that having back...
Background check systems are ineffective in preventing gun violence. Any adult can go to a gun show in the United States and buy a gun without and identification or passing
They believe that if background checks were required for private sales, which they describe as “firearms sold at gun shows, through classified newspaper ads, the Internet, and between individuals virtually anywhere” then the “Gun Show Loophole” would be eliminated (Coalition to Stop Gun Violence). As evidenced by the call for an increase in gun control after mass shootings people believe that with stricter gun control, we would have less incidences of gun violence. Gun control advocates argue that if we have stricter gun control then we will have a safer country, with less shootings. According to a study done by the University of Wisconsin and Bowling Green State University between 2005-2007, the number of police officers who “were convicted of firearms violations” were convicted “at a .0002% annual rate” (Fund). According to this study .0002% is “about the same rate as holders of carry permits in states with “shall issue” laws”
More stringent background checks should be obligatory for all gun purchases, and a database should be kept on a state and federal level, which could be funded by the federal government. According to Messer and Cartwright, background checks are a safer way to reduce the chances of endangering families. People who are against new laws misinterpret background checks with the belief that they can infringe on the rights of responsible gun owners. In actuality, background checks prevent known felons and unstable persons from acquiring weapons. The loophole with private sales of weapons, however, is that felons and mentally unstable buyers can purchase from a private seller without a background check. Because of the loophole, private sales should be documented. Even seventy four percent of the National Rifle Association members and 87 percent o...