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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 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The system runs database checks on criminal and other disqualifying records.
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 is the problem that the Terror Gap bill addresses?
A. The Terror Gap bill addresses a gaping hole in our nation’s firearm laws that terrorists can exploit. Under the Brady criminal background check law, a federally licensed dealer must request a background check through NICS. The problem occurs when, even if the Brady background check reveals that the prospective purchaser is a known or suspected terrorist, federal law will not bar the sale unless the person meets one of the disqualifying factors under the 1968 Gun Control Act, such as being a convicted felon or domestic abuser.
Q. Is there evidence that known or suspected terrorists have tried to buy guns?
A. Yes. From February 2004 through December 2010, 1,321 firearm and 3 explosives background checks matched the terrorist watchlist. Of these matches, 91 percent (1,321/1,453) were allowed to proceed because the checks revealed no prohibiting information (GAO, Table 1, p. 5).
The 1,228 matches involved roughly 650 unique individuals. Of the 650 people involved in the matches, 69 percent (450/650) were involved in multiple transactions and 6 were involved in 10 or more transactions.
According to FBI officials, several of the background checks also matched to the Transportation Security Administration's "No Fly" list (p. 4).
Law enforcement is increasingly concerned about smaller scale urban terrorist attacks carried out with firearms, such as the attack in Mumbai, India, in the fall of 2008 that killed 165 people (Lautenberg, 2010).
A former CIA case officer notes in Foreign Policy's AfPak blog, "The grim success of the firearm-based attack of Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 29, suggests that even an unsupported individual can pose a grave threat, if he avoids the complexities involved in effectively constructing and detonating an IED and sticks to the simplicity, reliability, and ready availability of guns" (Keller, 2010).
Q. Are there specific examples of terrorists exploiting our weak gun laws?
A. Yes. On May 7, 2007, federal law enforcement authorities arrested six terrorism suspects who had been planning an attack with firearms on Fort Dix in New Jersey. The men had been training with firearms and were trying to obtain AK-47s for the attack.
Other incidents of suspected terrorists trying to buy firearms, sometimes successfully, in the United States include:
· Ali Boumelhem and his brother Mohamed purchased an arsenal of shotguns, ammunition, and assault weapon parts from Michigan gun shows. On September 10, 2001, just one day before the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Ali Boumelhem was convicted of weapons violations and conspiracy to ship weapons to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon (AP, 2000).
· Over the course of seven years, Muhammad Navid Asrar, a suspected terrorist and illegal immigrant, frequented gun shows, buying several weapons, including a Ruger Mini-14 rifle, two pistols and a hunting rifle. On October 30, 2001, he pleaded guilty in Texas to illegal possession of ammunition and other charges (Butterfield, 2001).
Read a Brady Center report called Guns and Terror: How Terrorists Exploit Our Weak Gun Laws for more details.
Q. How do gun owners feel about closing the Terror Gap?
A. Gun-owning NRA members support closing the Terror Gap. A recent poll found that 82 percent of NRA members think people on the terrorist watch list should be prohibited from purchasing guns (Mayors Against Illegal Guns, p. 5). Eighty-four percent of the general public wants to see the Terror Gap closed (Smith, 2008).
Q. What can be done to close the Terror Gap?
A. In order to close the terror gap, Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ) and Representative Peter King (NY) have introduced the "Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act." Based on a Bush Administration proposal, this legislation would:
· Provide the Attorney General (AG) with discretionary authority to deny the transfer of a firearm or an explosives license or permit when a background check reveals that the purchaser is a known or suspected terrorist and the AG reasonably believes that the person may use a firearm or explosives in connection with terrorism;
· Implement due process safeguards so an affected person would have an opportunity to challenge a denial by the AG; and
· Protect the sensitive information providing the basis for terrorist watch lists.
Q. What can I do?
A. Contact your Representative and Senators to urge them to support the Terror Gap bill.
Sources
Associated Press, ”Man Accused of Shipping Arms, Ammunition to Beirut,” Associated Press Newswires (November 21, 2000)
Butterfield, Fox, “Gun Foes Use Terror Issue in a Push for Stricter Laws,” New York Times (November 13, 2001)
Cable News Network, Official: Radicals wanted to create carnage at Fort Dix (May 9, 2007), accessed 09-26-2007, www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/08/fortdix.plot/index.html
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.
Keller, Art, "Why Was Faisal Shahzad a Bad Bombmaker?" Foreign Policy, Mary 14, 2010
Smith, Tom, Attitudes Towards Firearms on the 2008 General Social Survey, Chicago, IL: NORC/University of Chicago, January 2009, on file with Brady Campaign.
Lautenberg, Senator Frank, Firearm, Explosives and Terrorists: A Looming Threat; A Major U.S. Vulnerability, October 2010
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Gun Owners: NRA Gun-Owners and Non-NRA Gun-Owners, December 2009
U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Background Checks for Firearm Transfers, 2009: Statistical Tables (October 2010)
U. S. Government Accountability Office. Gun Control and Terrorism: FBI Could Better Manage Firearm-Related Background Checks Involving Terrorist Watch List Records. Highlights of GAO-05-127 (January 2005)
Government Accountability Office, Terrorist Watchlist Screening: FBI Has Enhanced Its Use of Information from Firearm and Explosives Background Checks to Support Counterterrorism Efforts, Testimony of Eileen R. Larence, Director, Homeland Security and Justice, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, May 4, 2010, GAO-10-703T
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Suspected Terrorists Can Easily Buy Weapons at US Gun Shops