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发帖数: 29846 | 1 NRA and NICS
The National Rifle Association supported the establishment of the National
Criminal Instant Background Check System (NICS) [1], and we support it to
this day. At its creation, we advocated that NICS checks be accurate; fair;
and truly instant. The reason for this is that 99% of those who go through
NICS checks are law-abiding citizens, who are simply trying to exercise
their fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Dealers
Since 1986, those engaged in the business of selling firearms for livelihood
and profit have been required to have a Federal Firearms License (FFL).
All retail sales of firearms currently require a NICS check, no matter where
they occur.
Private Sales
Regarding the issue of private firearms sales, it is important to note that
since 1968, it has been a federal felony for any private person to sell,
trade, give, lend, rent or transfer a gun to a person he either knows or
reasonably should know is not legally allowed to purchase or possess a
firearm.
Mental Health Records and NICS
According to a recent General Accounting Office study, as of 2011 23 states
and the District of Columbia submitted less than 100 mental health records
to NICS; 17 states submitted less than ten mental health records to NICS;
and four states submitted no mental health records to NICS.[2]
Gun Shows
A common misrepresentation is that criminals obtain firearms through sales
at gun shows.
A 1997 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of state prison inmates who had
used or possessed firearms in the course of their crimes found that 79
percent acquired their firearms from “street/illegal sources” or “friends
or family.”
Only 1.7 percent obtained firearms from anyone (dealer or non-dealer) at a
gun show or flea market.[3]
Prosecutions
In 2010, the FBI denied 72,659 NICS checks out of a total of 14,409,616.
But only 62 of these cases were actually prosecuted, and only 13 resulted in
a conviction.[4]
“Universal Background Checks”
While the term “universal background checks” may sound reasonable on its
face, the details of what such a system would entail reveal something quite
different. A mandate for truly “universal” background checks would
require every transfer, sale, purchase, trade, gift, rental, or loan of a
firearm between all private individuals to be pre-approved by the federal
government. In other words, it would criminalize all private firearms
transfers, even between family members or friends who have known each other
all of their lives.
According to a January 2013 report from the U.S. Department of Justice’s
National Institute of Justice, the effectiveness of “universal background
checks” depends on requiring gun registration.[5] In other words, the only
way that the government could fully enforce such a requirement would be to
mandate the registration of all firearms in private possession – a
requirement that has been prohibited by federal law since 1986. |
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