...is the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. At least many agree, certainly not all.
And what should come as no surprise to anyone... it has major gaps.
Hauser, the Lousiana movie theater shooter, had a history of being mentally troubled, passed a background check. So did Dylan Roof, the Charleston church shooter, who had a prior for drug possession. Both should have failed their respective checks. Both passed.
NYTimes --
Problems Plague System to Check Gun Buyers
As these two cases show, the one system that gun rights and gun control advocates both agree on, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is supposed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, is riddled with problems. While the system, in operation since 1998, has prevented more than 2.4 million sales, it still has major gaps, with spotty cooperation from the states and a narrow definition of who is considered too mentally ill to own a gun.
The National Rifle Association, which declined to comment for this article, has argued that the background check system, and the database of prohibited gun buyers, should be repaired before any other controls are considered. Gun control advocates say that ignores the biggest flaw of all in the system, that about 40 percent of all gun sales are exempt from background checks because the seller is a private party, often operating online or at a gun show.
Federally licensed gun dealers are required to conduct a background check before each gun purchase, but private sellers are not.
Under federal law, the list of prohibited buyers is supposed to include people convicted of felonies and certain misdemeanors, drug abusers and those convicted of certain drug crimes, and anyone whom a court has involuntarily committed for being dangerously mentally ill.
But there is no requirement that the states participate in adding names to the database. Putting the states? convicted criminals on the list of prohibited buyers generally works fairly smoothly, but the systems for adding people with drug problems have been erratic, and those for the mentally ill even more so, experts say.
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