Background checks should be required for all firearm transfers: study
a process typically completed in minutes.
“These procedural safeguards are intended to ensure that the buyer is who he says he is, that he and not someone else will be the actual owner of the firearm, and that he is not prohibited from owning it,” Wintemute said. “They help prevent the large-volume purchasing that otherwise might fuel trafficking operations. They establish a chain of ownership that will help law enforcement authorities link the firearm to the buyer if it is used in a crime later.”
A private party, by contrast, is permitted to sell guns with none of these federal safeguards in place. There are no forms to fill out, no records to be kept, and no requirement that a buyer show identification or submit to a background check.
In addition to background checks to identify prohibited persons and deter those with criminal intent, Wintemute recommends establishing a permanent record for each firearm transferred between private parties, thus creating a chain of ownership. Such records have proven to be of great help to law enforcement agencies as they investigate individual crimes and seek to disrupt firearm trafficking networks.
To maximize the potential of the current background check system, he also recommends greater efforts to improve the three FBI databases — the Interstate Identification Index, National Crime Information Center, and the National Interstate Criminal Background Check System — on which background checks rely. Improved reporting of criminal convictions, domestic violence restraining orders and prohibiting mental health events is most important.
“The widespread unavailability of records seriously compromises the effectiveness of our current background-check process,” Wintemute said. “I am actually very optimistic that the nation will adopt a comprehensive background check policy in this Congress, where there has been a bipartisan expression of support for such a proposal. Six states have adopted such policies, and we know they work.”
He cited two pitfalls to avoid: adopting a limited, “gun show loophole” approach and creating an exemption for holders of unexpired concealed weapon permits.
“These more limited approaches are unnecessary and would still allow prohibited persons to purchase firearms from private parties,” he said.
Wintemute added that a public opinion survey conducted last month found that 88.8 percent of the population overall, 84.3 percent of firearm owners and 73.7 percent of National Rifle Association members supported “requiring a background check system for all gun sales to make sure a purchaser is not legally prohibited from having a gun.”
— Read more in Garen Wintemute, Background Checks for Firearm Transfers (University of California, Davis, February 2013); and Colleen L. Barry et al., “After Newtown — Public Opinion on Gun Policy and Mental Illness,” New England Journal of Medicine (28 January 2013)
