However, three business days are allowed to complete suspicious checks. The NICS, as indicated by its title, is an instant check system. State laws may require waiting periods but there is no federal requirement.
In fact, the Department of Justice has determined that 73 percent of the NICS checks are completed within minutes, while 95 percent of all checks are completed within two hours. For those background checks that require additional information to determine if the potential purchaser is a prohibited person, the statute provides additional time to collect that information.
The Five-Percenters. Yet, while the vast majority of sales are completed within minutes, three business days are often needed to weed out the most dangerous purchasers. In spite of these facts, the NRA has repeatedly argued that 24 hours is sufficient time to complete the checks.
During the May Senate vote on whether to expand the current Brady background check to all sales at gun shows not just those by licensed dealers , an amendment was offered by Senate Judiciary Chair Orrin Hatch R-UT.
That amendment passed but fortunately was superceded by passage of the Lautenberg amendment. The gun lobby often argues that expanding current law to sales at gun shows will in effect ban gun shows.
This argument has no basis in fact. And, in states like California, which have much stricter laws regulating both gun shows and private sales, gun shows still thrive. This requirement has not had the effect of banning gun shows. In fact, the February 2, , issue of Gun List magazine advertises more than 10 guns shows in California for the month of February alone.
Legislation should not interfere with or weaken current Justice Department policy which allows records generated by the NICS to be kept for 90 days for audit purposes. The National Rifle Association supports efforts to immediately destroy essential records maintained under the NICS, which serves as the foundation for the background check required under the Brady law.
On January 22, , the FBI issued a final rule that sets the time period for the audit at 90 days. The Department of Justice has described the purpose of temporary document retention:. Decisions to allow a firearm purchase are not fully automated, and thus officials must review and evaluate records before making a decision. Review of decisions made by NICS examiners is necessary to ensure that responsible individuals make correct decisions on whether a transfer is permissible, and to enable supervisors to provide additional training where necessary.
In response to the document retention policy, the National Rifle Association sued the Department of Justice to require the immediate destruction of the records, which would have seriously undermined the effectiveness of the background check system. To most effectively implement a universal background check on all sales at gun shows, access to the NICS should be only through established means. Such an approach is unnecessary and potentially dangerous.
Creation of a new bureaucracy composed of this new class of licensees could have dangerous repercussions. Furthermore, the creation of a network of special registrants could severely tax the resources available to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ATF to conduct routine inspections and ensure compliance with applicable laws. Permitless carry is a term used to describe the legal authorization to carry a gun in public open or concealed without first obtaining a permit.
Under this system, people are allowed to carry handguns in public with minimal oversight, without a background check, and without proper safety training. Gun violence prevention advocates worry that it endangers public safety. Fifteen states allow permitless carry as of Additional states allow limited permitless carry; for example, in New Mexico, an individual can only carry a concealed handgun without a permit if the gun is unloaded. Open carry allows those with a special license to carry a handgun openly in public.
Some sensitive areas, particularly medical and university settings, are often excluded from open carry. In Texas, open carry is allowed for individuals who have obtained a Concealed Handgun License CHL and use a holster for their firearms. Campus carry refers to allowing handguns on college and university campuses.
Texas allows holders of a CHL to carry a handgun inside buildings owned or leased by a university, as long as the handgun is kept concealed from the view of others. Campus carry primarily affects public universities, where campus carry is required by law, subject to some restrictions that institutions of higher education are allowed to adopt for their campuses.
Private colleges and universities can opt out of the policy. Why is there so much talk about background checks? For legal gun purchases, aren't all buyers already screened? Only gun dealers who have a Federal Firearms License FFL are required to conduct background checks on sales of firearms. Many dealers do not have an FFL, however. These dealers - usually individuals - can still legally sell guns to others, but they do not have the requirement to conduct a background check.
It is impossible to know exactly how many Texans are gun owners, primarily because there is no requirement for a permit to purchase a gun in the state.
The explosion of gun shows nationwide is a relatively recent phenomenon that experts attribute to changes in federal law in the mids.
From the adoption of the Gun Control Act of until , in fact, licensed dealers were prohibited from completing the transfer of guns at gun shows. General state laws that regulate the sale of firearms or ammunition, such as waiting periods , recordkeeping , and background check laws , still apply at gun shows.
Five states Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Oregon have laws expressly addressing background checks at gun shows, although broader laws also apply. As described below, twelve states specifically regulate gun shows in other ways, with California having the most comprehensive regulation of gun shows. The most comprehensive approach to ensuring that sales are only made to eligible purchasers is through a requirement for universal background checks prior to all firearm transfers wherever the transfer takes place.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia require a background check before any firearm is purchased from any seller, either by requiring the seller to conduct a background check at the point of sale, or by requiring the seller to verify that the purchaser has a permit issued after a background check.
Five other states do the same, but only for handguns. For further details, see our summary on Universal Background Checks. Transfers at gun shows are exempted from this requirement, however, and Illinois has a separate law for background checks at gun shows. Under this law, unlicensed sellers at gun shows are subject to the same requirement as licensed dealers to contact the State Police directly to conduct a background check on any prospective transferee.
Colorado, Connecticut, New York, Oregon, and Virginia are also among the sixteen states mentioned above that now require a background check at the point of sale of any firearm. In those five states, pre-existing laws that required background checks at gun shows also remain on the books.
Connecticut simply refers to its requirement that sellers conduct background checks through law enforcement and confirms that it applies at gun shows.
0コメント