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Q. What is the purpose of a Brady criminal background check?
A. The purpose is to find out if a prospective gun buyer is prohibited from purchasing a firearm. When a prospective gun buyer attempts to purchase a gun at a federally licensed gun dealer, state or federal law enforcement authorities must do a Brady criminal background check.
The Brady Law requiring a background check took effect in 1994, after a 7-year battle with the NRA. It initially required purchasers to wait up to five days for a background check to occur before being allowed to purchase a handgun. This provision of the Act expired in 1998 when the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) came online. NICS is managed by the FBI. The system runs database checks on criminal and other disqualifying records.
The Brady Law is named in honor of James Brady, who was President Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary in 1981 when both men were shot in an attempted assassination of President Reagan.
Q. Why is a Brady criminal background check important?
A. The Brady criminal background check is important to keep dangerous guns out of the hands of dangerous people. It is a critical law enforcement tool that prevents criminals and other prohibited purchasers from buying guns from gun dealers.
Since 1994, the Brady Law has stopped over 1.9 million criminals and other prohibited people from purchasing firearms from licensed dealers (US DOJ, 2010, Table 1).
Q. Are all gun sales covered by the Brady Law?
A. No. There are loopholes that need to be addressed. The Brady Law applies only to sales by licensed gun dealers, not to sales by unlicensed sellers. It is estimated that over forty percent of gun acquisitions occur in the secondary market. That means that they happen without a Brady background check at a federally licensed dealer (Cook, p. 26).
Q. What are the loopholes and why are they a problem?
A. We make it too easy for dangerous people to obtain dangerous weapons. Convicted felons, domestic violence abusers, and those who are dangerously mentally ill can walk into gun shows and buy firearms from unlicensed sellers. No questions are asked. This is known as the gun show loophole. In addition to gun shows, criminals use classified ads, flea markets and even the internet to buy and sell guns without a background check.
The fact that criminals and other dangerous people can exploit these loopholes threatens the safety of our families and communities.
Licensed gun dealer Bruce Schluderman, who is required to run background checks has witnessed the consequences of this loophole, "I have had people that failed background checks, and yet they are carrying guns out of here [a gun show in Pharr, Texas] that they bought from someone else" (Austin American-Statesman, 2009).
Our national gun policy should be: no background check, no gun, no excuses.
Q. Are criminals really using gun shows to buy guns?
A. Absolutely. Gun shows provide a huge market for gun sales completed without Brady background checks. Gun shows are a major trafficking channel according to ATF, with an average of 130 guns trafficked per investigation, and over 25,000 firearms trafficked in total over one 17-month period alone (US Dept. of Treasury, June 2000, p. 13).
Undercover stings at gun shows in Ohio, Tennessee and Nevada documented that:
- 63 percent of private sellers sold guns to purchasers who stated they probably could not pass a background check;
- 94 percent of licensed dealers completed sales to people who appeared to be criminals or straw purchasers (City of New York, 2009, p. 6, 7).
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, commenting on an undercover investigation of guns trafficked by the Bloods gang from North Carolina to New York City, stated, "Half of [the guns] were stolen and half were, we believe, purchased at gun shows in North Carolina" (Gorta and Mongelli, 2010).
Unregulated sales to criminals and traffickers at gun shows have led to deadly consequences. Here are some examples:
Littleton, Colorado: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold used two shotguns, an assault rifle and a TEC-9 assault pistol to shoot 26 students at Columbine High School, killing 13. All four guns came from gun show sales. Their friend, Robyn Anderson, bought three of the guns for them from unlicensed sellers. After the massacre, Ms. Anderson stated that had she been required to fill out paperwork and undergo a background check, she would not have purchased the guns.
Oklahoma City, Okalahoma: Timothy McVeigh, and his sidekicks Michael Fortier and Terry Nichols, admitted to stealing $60,000 worth of shotguns, rifles and handguns from an Arkansas gun collector's ranch. Fortier admitted that he sold many of the stolen weapons at gun shows.
Waco, Texas: Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh used Texas gun shows to purchase many firearms. According to an ATF arrest warrant, Koresh and his cult made "regular purchases of weapons and ammunition [from] flea markets and gun shows." In the end, authorities estimated that Koresh had at least 200 automatic and semi-automatic assault rifles stockpiled, plus thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Q. Are terrorists exploiting these loopholes?
A. Yes. Terrorists are also buying at gun shows. Foreign terrorists also find gun shows in the United States to be inviting marketplaces to supply themselves with guns:
Hezbollah purchases. On September 10, 2001, just one day before the devastating attacks against the United States, Ali Boumelhem was convicted on a variety of weapons violations plus conspiracy to ship weapons to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon. He and his brother Mohamed had purchased an arsenal of shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, flash suppressors and assault weapons parts from Michigan gun shows without undergoing background checks.
Al-Qaeda purchases. On October 30, 2001, Muhammad Navid Asrar, an illegal Pakistani immigrant, was also convicted of weapons charges. Over the course of seven years, Asrar frequented gun shows, buying several weapons, allegedly to supply the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. He remains under investigation by a federal grand jury on suspicion of involvement with al-Qaeda.
Q. What role do gun shows play in funneling guns to Mexican drug cartels?
A. According to a June 2009 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, about 87 percent of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced over the past 5 years originated in the U.S. (GAO, p. 1), or about 20,000 firearms.
A 2010 paper from the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars highlighted an ATF official's take on the problem of gun shows: "A good time to catch firearms smugglers is right after a U.S. gun show in Arizona or Texas” (Goodman, p. 26).
Overall, the Wilson report urged closing the gun show loophole: "As private sales through gun shows and other means is an easy way for prohibited buyers to obtain firearms, it also remains critical to require private sellers to check the background of the seller and keep records of their sales" (Goodman, p. 33).
Recent news stories document that guns purchased illegally at gun shows are ending up in Mexico:
- As reported October 16, 2009 by KVUE.com in Austin, Texas, 58-year-old Alfred Dwight Watkins pled guilty to selling guns illegally at gun shows in Austin and San Antonio. A gun that Watkins sold was recovered three weeks later from a Mexican drug cartel. A search of Watkins' home produced 65 firearms, including a dozen assault rifles and 59,000 rounds of ammunition (KVUE, 2009).
- The Kansas City Star reported on October 28, 2009, that an immigrant in the U.S. illegally purchased two AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifles from a Kansas City gun show and sold them to another person who delivered them to Mexico (Kansas City Star, 2009).
Q. Is there any photographic or video evidence of private sales with no background checks at gun shows?
A. Yes. You can see direct photographic and video evidence of assault weapons and other guns for sale without background checks at gun shows from multiple sources:
- Virginia Tech survivor Colin Goddard visited gun shows in the summer of 2009 and caught private sales, including sales of assault weapons, on camera;
- New York City officials mounted undercover stings at guns shows in Ohio, Tennessee, and Nevada in 2009;
- University of California researcher Garen Wintemute conducted an academic study of 78 gun shows in 19 states between 2005 and 2008, producing photographs and video of private sales;
- Cinncinnati, OH, TV station WLWT reported on private sales with no background checks at a 2007 gun show in Kentucky.
Q. Are there states that have extended Brady background checks to close the gun show loophole?
A. Seven states require background checks no matter where a gun is purchased. Of these seven, two states (California and Rhode Island) require background checks on all firearm purchasers. Five states (Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) require background checks on all handgun, but not long gun, purchasers.
Thirty-three states have done nothing to close the gun show loophole. Seventeen states have taken at least some steps to extend Brady background checks for firearm purchases at gun shows.
For more information about your state’s background check laws please visit: www.stategunlaws.org
Q. What is the evidence that requiring background checks for every sale, including those at gun shows, would make a difference?
A. California has strong gun laws that require all sales to go through retail dealers, including those at gun shows. A study that compared California gun shows with gun shows in states with looser laws found that California's regulatory policies were associated with a decreased incidence of anonymous, undocumented gun sales and illegal straw purchases at gun shows. California gun shows were not hurt by the restrictions. California’s shows had more attendees per vendor than shows in the other states (Wintemute, p. 150).
Another study based on data from 54 cities found that requiring state background checks for private sales reduced gun trafficking within a state by 48 percent (Webster, p. 525).
Public safety gains in states that have closed the gun show loophole are likely undermined by gun trafficking from states that haven't. A 2010 Mayors Against Illegal Guns study examined the movement of crime guns across state lines. The study found that states failing to require a background check for all handgun sales at gun shows exported crime guns at a rate more than 2.5 times higher than states that required the checks (MAIG, p. 14).
Q. Does law enforcement support requiring background checks at gun shows?
A. Yes. Ninety-four percent of police chiefs favor requiring a Brady criminal background check for all handgun sales, including those at gun shows (Thompson, p. 309). Eighty-two percent favor them for rifles and shotguns (Thompson, p. 309). The International Association of Chiefs of Police supports requiring that all gun sales go through federally licensed dealers with a mandatory background check, including those at gun shows (International Association of Chiefs of Police, p. 6).
Q. Does the public support requiring background checks at gun shows?
A. Yes. Sixty-nine percent of gun-owning NRA members support requiring all gun sellers at gun shows to conduct criminal background checks on gun buyers (Mayors Against Illegal Guns, p. 5). Sixty-seven percent of gun owners are in favor of an even more comprehensive law to require a background check for every sale, regardless of location. Eighty-four percent of people who live in a house with a gun (but are not the owner of the gun) favor a background check for every sale, and 80 percent of non-gun owners support this policy (Smith, p. 53).
Q. What is the solution?
A. Congress must pass legislation to require Brady criminal background checks on all gun sales, including closing the gun show loophole. More states must pass legislation to require universal background checks to put pressure on Congress to act.
Allowing dangerous people such as convicted felons and domestic abusers to buy guns from unlicensed sellers without a Brady criminal background check threatens the safety of our families and communities. We must act now to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
Our national gun policy should be: no background check, no gun, no excuses.
Q. What can I do?
A. Contact your Representative and Senators to urge them to support the closing the gun show loophole. The Senate bill is S. 35. The House bill is H.R. 591.
Sources
Austin American-Statesman, Gun Smuggling, April 15, 2009, accessed April 16, 2009
City of New York, Gun Show Undercover: Report On Illegal Sales at Gun Shows, October 2009
Cook, PJ and J Ludwig, Guns in America: Results of a Comprehensive National Survey on Firearms Ownership and Use. (Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 1996). Although a handful of states require background checks at gun shows, in most states, private sales are completely unregulated.
U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Background Checks for Firearm Transfers, 2009: Statistical Tables (October 2010)
Goodman, Colby, and Michel Marizco, “U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Mexico: New Data and Insights Illuminate Key Trends and Challenges,” Working Paper Series on U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: Mexico Institute and the University of San Diego Trans-Border Institute, September 2010
Gorta, William J, and Lorena Mongelli, "Cops Uncover Bloods Gun Smuggling Operation," New York Post, Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Government Accountability Office, Summary: Firearms Trafficking: U.S. Efforts to Combat Arms Trafficking to Mexico Face Planning and Coordination Challenges, June 19, 2009, GAO-09-781T
International Association of Chiefs of Police, Taking a Stand: Reducing Gun Violence in Our Communities: Report and Recommendations from the IACP Great Lakes Summit on Gun Violence (Washington, DC: 2007)
Kansas City Star, Man Admits Buying Guns in KC for Shipment to Mexico, October 28, 2009, accessed November 6, 2009
KVUE, Luling Gun Dealer Linked to Mexican Drug Cartel, October 16, 2009, accessed November 6, 2009
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Trace the Guns: The Link Between Gun Laws and Interstate Gun Trafficking, New York, NY, September 2010
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Gun Owners: NRA Gun-Owners and Non-NRA Gun-Owners, December 2009
Smith, Tom W., Public Opinion on Gun Control, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, National Opinion Research Center, December 2003
Thompson, A., JH Price, JA Dake, and T. Tatchell, “Police Chiefs’ Perceptions of the Regulation of Firearms,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 30(4) (April 2006):305-312
U. S. Department of Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Following the Gun: Enforcing Federal Laws Against Firearms Traffickers (June 2000): Table 3
Webster, Daniel W., Jon S. Vernick, and Maria T Bulzacchelli. “Effects of State-Level Firearm Seller Accountability Policies on Firearm Trafficking” Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 86 (2009): 525-37
Wintemute GJ, “Gun shows across a multistate American gun market: observational evidence of the effects of regulatory policies,” Injury Prevention 13:3 (2007):150-5
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Gun Show Loophole Bills Introduced in U.S. Congress
