The Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, published a story this week that discussed disagreements among gun violence prevention groups concerning legislation that has passed the U.S. House of Representatives on June 13, 2007 and was approved by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. This legislation would give states new incentives to report records of individuals who are barred from buying guns to the Federal background check system.

HR 2640, sponsored in the U.S. House by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and the Senate bill sponsored by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, would authorize funding to help the states do a better job of reporting records of individuals who are prohibited, under existing law, from purchasing firearms to the Federal background check system. This is no small problem. The best estimates are that more than 90 percent of disqualifying mental health records (as well as 25 percent of disqualifying felony records) are not submitted to the system currently. That’s how the Virginia Tech shooter managed to purchase his weapons from two different licensed dealers. We need to do a better job of compiling complete records of prohibited purchasers.

What has become controversial among supporters of common-sense gun laws is another provision in the legislation which would require states to set up procedures to allow individuals who are currently prohibited purchasers to change that status. Some gun violence prevention advocates are deeply concerned about who, under such a system, might once again be allowed to purchase firearms.

This is a legitimate concern, and we’ll have to watch carefully what happens in the states if this legislation becomes law. Still, we have a historic chance to put hundreds of thousands of new records of prohibited gun purchasers into the Brady background check system. We need to take this opportunity to close that dreadful records gap. As Virginia Tech showed us, lives literally are at stake.