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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 1.8 million criminals and other prohibited people from purchasing firearms from licensed dealers (US DOJ, 2009, 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. Over roughly a five-month period in 2004, 44 known or suspected terrorists attempted to purchase guns from gun dealers in the U.S (US GAO, 2005). Six of the 44 were stopped because they were found to be prohibited purchasers under the Brady Law.
Thirty five of those known or suspected terrorists had no Brady background check disqualifiers, passed the background check, and walked away with firearms.
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. 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. The Senate bill is S. 1317. The House bill is H.R. 2159.
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
U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Background Checks for Firearm Transfers, 2008: Statistical Tables (August 2009) at http://ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/html/bcft/2008/bcft08st.htm
U. S. Government Accounting 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)
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Overview