Universal background check


Proposals for universal background checks would require almost all firearms transactions in the United States to be recorded and go through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, closing what is sometimes called the private sale exemption.

Background

Currently, federal law requires background checks only for guns sold through licensed firearm dealers, which account for 78% of all gun sales in the United States. This figure was published in a 2017 study by the Annals of Internal Medicine which compared data from 1994, indicating 40% of recent gun acquisitions were completed without a background check, to a 2015 survey which found that 22% of recent gun transfers were completed without a background check. The current federal law allows people not "engaged in the business" of selling firearms to sell firearms without a license or records. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence states that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System has prevented over two million felons and other prohibited persons from purchasing firearms. According to the CSGV, the law also has a prohibitive effect, that deters illegal purchases.
In November 1998, President Bill Clinton directed the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the U.S. Attorney General to provide recommendations concerning the fact that 25 percent or more of sellers at gun shows are not required to run background checks on potential buyers. This was called the gun show loophole. Two months later, Gun Shows: Brady Checks and Crime Gun Traces was released. The Secretary and the A.G. made seven recommendations, including expanding the definition of "gun show," and reviewing the definition of "engaged in the business".
After the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999, gun shows and background checks became a focus of national debate. In May, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, "We think it is reasonable to provide mandatory, instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show." Those concerned about the shows believed they were a source of illegally trafficked firearms. Efforts to reverse a key feature of the Firearm Owners Protection Act by requiring criminal background checks and purchase records on private sales at gun shows, which had become prolific in the U.S. since the law's passage in 1986, were unsuccessful.

Private sale exemption

In the August 5, 2010, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers Garen J. Wintemute, Anthony A. Braga, and David M. Kennedy, wrote that gun shows account for only a fraction of all U.S. gun sales and that a more effective strategy would be to make all private-party gun sales go through the screening and record-keeping processes that FFL dealers are required to do. Their report concluded:
Following the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, there were numerous calls for universal background checks to close what is now referred to as the "private sale loophole." In an essay published in 2013, Wintemute said that comprehensive background checks that included private sales would result in a simple, fair framework for retail firearms commerce. In February 2014, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research reported that after the 2007 repeal in Missouri of a long-standing law that required all handgun buyers to pass a background check there was a 23 percent increase in firearms homicides.
In 2017, a study by researchers from Northeastern University and the Harvard School of Public Health showed that 22% of American gun owners who had obtained a gun in the previous two years did not undergo a background check before doing so.

Public opinion

Universal background checks enjoy high levels of public support; a 2016 representative survey found 86% of registered voters in the United States supported the measure. Five national polls conducted in 2015 show high levels of support for "expanded background checks for gun purchases," with rates varying. A 2015 survey found that more than 90% of Americans supported universal background checks, and that, on average, Americans thought they would be more effective than any other gun policy. There is evidence that many Americans incorrectly think that universal background checks are required by federal law; a 2016 survey found that 41% of Americans believed this to be the case. The same survey found that 77% of Americans supported universal background checks, while only 53% supported stricter gun laws. Based on this data, the authors concluded that "this difference might be attributable to poor awareness of the limitations of existing laws."
In 2015, large majorities of American adults, both Republicans and Democrats, supported background checks for private sales and at gun shows, according to a Pew Research Center survey. In 2017, strong majorities of American adults, both gun owners and non-gun owners, supported background checks for private sales and at gun shows, according to a Pew Research Center survey with an error attributable to sampling of +/- 2.8% at the 95% level of confidence. In 2018, after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, nearly all Americans supported universal background checks. 88% of registered voters supported universal background checks, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll with a margin of error +/- 2%. 94% of American voters supported universal background checks, according to a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll with a margin of error of +/- 3.4%.

Opposition

Gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation oppose universal background check proposals. Opponents of universal background checks argue that existing gun laws are sufficient; that the government does not prosecute enough of the attempted ineligible buyers who are turned away by the current system; that background checks are an invasion of privacy; and that "transfer" might be defined too broadly. Opponents also maintain that universal background checks would not stop crime and assert that the only way to properly enforce a universal system would be to require a registration database. Gun-rights advocate and author John Lott argues that universal background checks prevent poorer Americans from acquiring guns. Lott said that, as of December 2015, background checks added an effective cost of $80, $60, or $200 to transferring a firearm. Lott argues that universal background checks are an effective tax on guns and can prevent less affluent Americans from purchasing them, and that this disproportionately affects poor minorities who live in high-crime urban areas.
Some local counties have adopted Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions in opposition to universal background check laws.

Effectiveness

Studies

Universal background check laws were associated with a 14.9% reduction in overall homicides, according to a 2019 study by medical researchers including Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health and David Hemenway of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published by the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study authors wrote that "further research is necessary to determine whether these associations are causal ones".
An October 2018 study conducted by the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis and the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found no change in firearm homicide or suicide rates in the ten years following California's 1991 implementation of comprehensive background checks. The study's control group used firearm and non-firearm mortality data for 32 states that did not implement major firearm policies during the period from 1981-2000. In the study period, firearm suicide rates were 10.9 percent lower in California but a similar decrease in non-firearm suicide was also observed. The study found no net difference between firearm-related homicide rates before and during the study period. The study authors identified a number of possible reasons for the null finding, including inadequate reporting of criminal records or other disqualifying information to background-check databases ; a failure by sellers to conduct the background check as required by law; and the small number of persons affected by the California law.
Another study by the VPRP found that comprehensive background check policies led to increased background checks in Delaware, but not in Colorado or Washington. Non-compliance with the policy may be attributable to the lack of an increase in the latter two states.
A study published in July 2018 found no association between firearm homicide and suicide rates and the repeal of comprehensive background check laws in two states. The study compared rates from synthetic control groups to rates in Indiana from 1981 to 2008 and in Tennessee from 1994 to 2008. Rates from the two states' study periods were within the range of natural variability. The study also concluded that in order to understand whether comprehensive background checks generally reduce firearm deaths, more evidence from other states is needed.
A study published in the June 2018 volume of Journal of Urban Health by authors affiliated with the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis and the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found comprehensive background check laws not tied to a permit-to-purchase law were associated with an increase in firearm homicide rates but not non-firearm homicide rates.
A 2015 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that a Connecticut law requiring handgun buyers to undergo a background check "was associated with a 40 percent decline in gun homicides and a 15 percent drop in suicides" during the law's first ten years in effect. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Urban Health found that the 2007 repeal of a "permit-to-purchase" handgun law in Missouri was associated with a 23% increase in the firearm homicide rate and a 15% increase in the murder rate, translating "to increases of between 55 and 63 homicides per year in Missouri." The study controlled for other variables that might affect homicides, including "changes in rates of unemployment, poverty, incarceration, burglary, law enforcement officers per capita, and the presence of four other types of state laws."

Scholarly surveys

In a survey published by the New York Times in January 2017, a panel of 32 scholars of criminology, public health, and law rated universal background checks as the most effective policy to prevent gun deaths, ranking it #1 of 29 possible gun-related policies. In a subsequent expert survey published in October 2017 on policies to curb mass shooting deaths specifically, the expert panel ranked universal checks for gun buyers and universal checks for ammunition buyers as 6.6 and 6.5, respectively, ranking them as the fifth- and sixth-most effective of 20 gun-policy proposals.
A survey by Arthur Berg, Gary Mauser, and John Lott, published in the winter 2019-2020 edition of the Cato Institute quarterly Regulation, asked respondents to rank the effects of 33 firearms policies on reducing murder rates and mass shootings. Respondents ranked universal background checks 13th and 14th for reducing the murder rate and reducing mass shootings, respectively. Public health researchers were substantially likelier than economists and criminologists to rate universal background checks as effective.

Implications for mental health counseling

Universal background check laws, which require that a background check be conducted before any gun transfer, may apply to temporary removals of guns from the home of suicidal individuals. Some clinicians have reported that these laws have created confusion about whether a gun transfer would be legal, and therefore made it more difficult for them to counsel their patients.

States with universal background check laws

To date, 21 states and District of Columbia require background checks for at least some private sales of firearms, as follows:
JurisdictionSummary from Giffords Law Center
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia"Require universal background checks at the point of sale for all sales and transfers of all classes of firearms, whether they are purchased from a licensed dealer or an unlicensed seller."
Maryland and Pennsylvania"Require point of sale background checks for handguns but not for long guns, like rifles and shotguns."
Hawaii, Illinois, and Massachusetts"Require all firearm purchasers to obtain a permit, issued after a background check, in order to buy any firearm"
New Jersey"Requires firearm purchasers to both obtain a permit to purchase a firearm and, if the purchase is from an unlicensed seller, conduct the transaction through a federally-licensed firearms dealer."
Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, and North Carolina"Permit and background check requirement for handgun purchases but not long-gun purchases."

In Maine, a 2016 referendum to require background checks on private sales failed after a closely fought campaign, with "yes" gaining 48.2% of the vote and "no" gaining 52.8% of the vote. In 2014, a referendum in Washington state to require background checks on private sales passed, with "yes" gaining 59.3% of the vote and "no" gaining 40.7% of the vote.