We Support Fix NICS

1
There is currently legislation being pondered in the Senate called Fix NICS.

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a United States system for determining if prospective firearms or explosives buyers' name and birth year match those of a person who is not eligible to buy. It was mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Law) of 1993 and launched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1998.

Source: Wiki

When you buy a new firearm, the FFL runs these checks in real time with the FBI to determine if you are prohibited from buying a firearm. The FBI tells the FFL to Proceed with the sale, Deny the sale, or Defer the sale. In the case of the Defer, the FBI has 72 hours to give a definitive answer or the sale is allowed to proceed, so its critical that data be available, complete and accurate.

There have been several shooters who should have been prohibited from purchasing their weapons prior to their murders. Charlotte's perpetrator had a drug conviction that hadn't been reported appropriately to the FBI, so the "Defer" apparently turned into a "Proceed." The Texas shooter had a military conviction that the sentence alone put him in a prohibited class. There are other examples, but these that come to mind immediately.

This bill seems to address one of our central positions, the completeness and accuracy of the NICS system. We know that not all relevant records make it into NICS, from states who were reluctant to submit adjudicated records, to agencies like the Department of Defense simply failing to report convictions.

This bill seems to address those issues to some extent, and as we said after Texas, its the sort of thing that might actually have an impact, eliminating the legal avenues that bad guys bent on killing have to acquire ANY firearm. The summary from GovTrack:

-Establish a new “Domestic Abuse and Violence Prevention Initiative” in order to better prevent those convicted of those crimes from obtaining weapons.
-Publicly report any federal agencies that fail to upload relevant information to the system, and withhold certain pay from political appointees who neglect to upload the info.
-Establish new measures to verify the accuracy of existing records already uploaded into the system.

The full text of the bill in the Senate can be found here, a version has passed out of committee in the House.

We support this.

So, apparently, does the NRA and the folks at Sandy Hook Promise. With support from a broad range of organizations from across the spectrum, there is no reason for this bill to be delayed. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Will Congress act? Have you called your representatives?

Re: We Support Fix NICS

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I live in Marysville WA. We had a school shooting because the kid was rejected by a girl. His father, who *gave* him guns, was convicted of domestic abuse and should have been denied firearms. The Tulalip tribal court didn't report it to NICS. So here we have a kid who's learning how to be an abuser from his dad and being armed by him. The tribe hides behind their sovereignty. Other court jurisdictions just don't report for whatever reason. If keeping your FFL was conditional on your jurisdiction's court being fully compliant at reporting to NICS you can bet the courts would be forced to comply.
"Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees" - Emiliano Zapata

Re: We Support Fix NICS

8
I agree that we should fix the NICS system. There shouldn't be any loopholes to be able to own a firearm. Every time there is a shooting, all of the law abiding gun owners are blamed. I live in NJ, we have some of the toughest gun laws in the country & will be getting tougher with a new Gov. in office. I am still able to obtain what I want to have. The system has failed so many times, yet no one wants to stand up and fix it. Everybody is afraid that someone will be knocking at our door to take our guns away. We have to be able to compromise and get things done. There are plenty of anti 2nd amendment people out there, so lets make sure guns don't get in the hands of people who shouldn't have them. There are so many things that can be done and still not hurt the law abiding gun owners.

Re: We Support Fix NICS

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We talked about this last November (2017), Senate Bill 2135 which has bi-partisan support. It's currently stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee, blame Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell. Or maybe it's the NRA blocking it.
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=45897&p=633034&hil ... 35#p633034

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-con ... %5D%7D&r=1
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: We Support Fix NICS

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Agreed. Using the current tools properly is a reasonable start.

Given that most of us support systemic rather than reactive preventions of firearm violence, maybe the Club could also call for committed funding of transparent, reputable, peer-reviewed research on the problem? That would say a lot, coming from gun owners.

Responsible citizens need to know which policies are more likely to work on complex problems, and why. Leaders who cite ignorance as an excuse to do nothing (or to do everything) are not leading at all. Modern life has handed us this jigsaw puzzle of repetitive tragedy, and the extremes — especially on the Right — are handing us a blindfold.

Rational actors armed with solid research eventually overcame resistance from the automotive and tobacco lobbies. That simple civic courage has now saved hundreds of thousands of American lives, without banning cars or cigarettes. We can do the same here: find and focus on what works.

Good intel can save both lives and liberty — I’d be proud if that were the LGC’s reputation. It’s there for the taking. The other guys clearly don’t want it.

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